Chili Recipe: Smoky Beef & Bean Pot That Freezes for 3 Months

Oct 17

3 min read

Updated: 15 hours ago

Pot of smoky beef and kidney bean chili topped with shredded cheese, sour cream and green onions

One pot, 30 minutes of simmering, freezes for 3 months

The chili that gets made in October and eaten until March. Ground beef, kidney beans and a heavy hand with smoked paprika and chipotle give it a depth that usually takes hours, and the whole thing is done in forty minutes. It serves six, costs very little, and freezes flat for three months.

▸ Get the full family dinner cookbook

Why this one works

Cocoa powder is the secret here. One teaspoon adds no chocolate flavour at all, just a dark, round bitterness that makes the chili taste slow-cooked.
Blooming the spices in the rendered beef fat rather than adding them to liquid is the single biggest flavour step.
Freezes better than almost any other dinner, and tastes noticeably better on day two.

At a glance

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 6 bowls
Protein: 36g per serving
Calories: 524 per serving

Ingredients

Base

2 tbsp olive oil
2 lb (900g) ground beef, 85/15
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced

Spices

2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 chipotle in adobo, minced, plus 1 tsp sauce
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Save This Recipe Collection

The pot

2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

To serve

Shredded cheddar
Sour cream
Sliced green onions and pickled jalapenos

Instructions

Brown the beef hard. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high. Add the beef in large chunks and leave it undisturbed for 4 minutes before breaking it up, so one side develops a real crust. Cook about 8 minutes total, then drain off all but 2 tbsp of fat.
Soften the vegetables. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook 6 minutes until soft, then the garlic for one more minute.
Bloom the spices in the fat. Add the chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, cocoa, chipotle, salt and pepper straight onto the hot meat. Stir constantly for 90 seconds. The pan should smell intensely of toasted spice.
Caramelise the tomato paste. Push everything aside, add the tomato paste to the bare pan and fry it for 2 minutes until it darkens to brick red.
Simmer. Add the crushed tomatoes, kidney beans and broth, scraping the bottom clean. Bring to a boil, drop to a low simmer and cook partially covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Finish with acid. Stir in the apple cider vinegar off the heat. Taste and adjust the salt — chili almost always needs more than you think, and the vinegar is what makes all the smoke pop.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and let everyone pile on cheese, sour cream, green onions and jalapenos.

Notes and swaps

Freezing: cool fully, portion into freezer bags, press flat and freeze up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in a covered pan with a splash of broth.
Longer is better. If you have 90 minutes instead of 30, the chili only improves.
For a thicker pot, mash half a can of the kidney beans before they go in.