Easy Homemade Chili Recipe

This easy Homemade Chili Recipe with flank steak, peppers, caramelized onions, and chili will become your new family favorite. You will love how quickly this comes together and how delicious it is.

I love making and eating soup all year round. It’s just so comforting. If you’re a huge soup fan, then you have to check out my Pasta e Fagioli or Matzo Ball soup.

Chili

Chili is a classic Tex-Mex recipe of beef stewed with tomatoes and spices. While many people, like myself, enjoy beans in chili, Texas is classically beanless. You can feel free to remove the beans from this recipe to keep it Texas-style.

There are many ways to make chili, including the meat used, vegetables, and spices added. Because of this, it can be tailored to your specific liking. My recipe is very basic and can be manipulated in any way that you see fit. This makes a very thick, hearty chili, which can also be thinned out using beef stock or water.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Oil – Any neutral-flavored oil will work. You can also use beef tallow, lard, ghee, or clarified butter.
• Onions — This recipe calls for red, yellow, white, or sweet onions. I prefer yellow, as it is best for caramelizing. You’ll also need some whole garlic cloves.
• Bell Peppers – I prefer red and yellow bell peppers as they are more flavorful. However, you can also use green bell peppers or a combination of all three.
• Chilis – I used jalapeño, poblano, and chipotle peppers in chili. You can also use serrano, Fresno, or habanero peppers, depending on the degree of spice you’d like.
• Beef – You can use flank steak, skirt steak, brisket, top round, or sirloin in this.
• Beans — Dark or light kidney beans are the most traditional type of chili. However, you can also use pinto beans, black beans, or chickpeas.
• Tomatoes — I use canned dice, petite dice, whole peeled tomatoes, or a combination of all three in the winter months. If you make this in the summer, fresh tomatoes will work.
• Spices – I use ground cumin, paprika, and chili powder. To add more onion and garlic flavor, add ground or granules.
• Tomato paste – You may need this as a thickener at the end when your soup is done cooking
• Salt and pepper – This seems simple but goes a long way to enhancing the flavor of your homemade chili.

How to Make Homemade Chili

1. Brown the meat well in oil or butter before setting it aside and cooking your veggies.
2. Add the onions and allow them to caramelize before adding anything else. The onions should be golden brown, taking about 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Use different spicy peppers. I used poblano, jalapeño, and chipotle peppers, added them to the onions, and cooked for a few minutes to incorporate them.
4. Add the cooked flank steak back into the pot.
5. Add tomatoes, beans, chili powder, cumin, and paprika.
6. Take the time to simmer it; remember, chili tastes better the longer it cooks.
7. Season with salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and tomato paste if it needs to be thickened.
8. Finish your chili with a tad bit of ground cinnamon and a little amount of dark chocolate to help take this thing to the next level.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 days ahead for freshness.

How to Store: It will hold well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days. It will also freeze well, covered, for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.

How to Reheat: To reheat it, add your desired portion to a small saucepot and heat over low heat until hot. 

chef notes + tips

• Salt and pepper can make your soup more flavorful. Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce are other ingredients that can help elevate it.
• Be sure to scale the recipe to fit your needs.
• Chili, like all soups, is usually better the next day. Since it contains so many complex flavors, from caramelized onions to beef to peppers to spices, they need time to infuse, and that can only happen with time.
• The longer your chili simmers over low heat, the more time the ingredients can infuse flavors, and the meat can break down to be tender. This is hands-down the secret to the best chili.

More Soup Recipes

• White Chicken Chili
• Italian Minestrone
• Pozole Verde
• Butternut Squash
• Fish Chowder

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Easy Homemade Chili Recipe

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5 from 12 votes

This easy Homemade Chili Recipe with flank steak, peppers, caramelized onions, and chili will become your new family favorite.

Servings: 10 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 pounds finely minced flank steak
• 2 peeled and small diced yellow onions
• 5 finely minced cloves of garlic
• 2 seeded and small diced red bell peppers
• 2 seed and small diced poblano peppers
• 1 seeded and small diced jalapeño pepper
• 1 finely minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• 3 28- ounce canned diced tomatoes
• 3 15- ounce cans pinto beans
• 3 15- ounce cans dark kidney beans
• 1 8- ounce can tomato paste
• 1/3 cup chili powder
• 1/4 cup cumin
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• Worcestershire to taste
• Tabasco to taste
• coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Instructions

• In a large hot pot on high heat with olive oil add in the minced flank steak and cook until browned and cooked through.
• Once browned, set aside it aside on a plate. In the rendered meat fat and oil add the onions and turn the heat down to medium. Sprinkle with a light season of salt and saute for 4 to 5 minutes or until they turn light brown.
• Turn the heat down to low medium and cook for a further 10 minutes to caramelize while occasionally stirring.
• Next, stir in the peppers (minus the chipotles) and garlic and cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add in the cooked flank steak, chipotle peppers, tomatoes, and beans, and bring to a boil.
• If the chili is too thick, add 1 to 2 cups of beef stock or water, or if it is too thin, add in the tomato paste and stir.
• Add in the cumin, chili powder, and paprika and simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
• Adjust the seasonings with salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce.
• Serve with optional sour cream, sliced jalapeños, diced avocado, shredded cheddar, and sliced green onions.

Notes

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 days ahead for freshness.

How to Store: It will hold well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days. It will also freeze well, covered, for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.

How to Reheat: To reheat it, add your desired portion to a small saucepot and heat over low heat until hot.

Salt and pepper can make your soup more flavorful. Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce are other ingredients that can help elevate it.

Be sure to scale the recipe to fit your needs.

Chili, like all soups, is usually better the next day. Since it contains so many complex flavors, from caramelized onions to beef to peppers to spices, they need time to infuse, and that can only happen with time.

The longer your chili simmers over low heat, the more time the ingredients can infuse flavors, and the meat can break down to be tender. This is hands-down the secret to the best chili.

Nutrition

Calories: 384kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 33gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 54mgSodium: 520mgPotassium: 1602mgFiber: 16gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 4789IUVitamin C: 69mgCalcium: 191mgIron: 12mg

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Author: Chef Billy Parisi