This bold beef chili recipe has developed over the last few years with some tweaking and adjusting. I finally got the proportions just right to where everybody in our household loves it! This beef chili has become our go to family chili now. Only our oldest boy has truly developed a taste for chili and enjoys it immensely. I've now managed to tweak this recipe to the point where all 3 of our boys really enjoy it and so does my husband. My goal over the last few years has been to make a classic delicious meaty chili my whole family could enjoy, not too spicy, not too sweet, but also not lacking flavor. I finally achieved it with this recipe and I hope you enjoy it as well! If you prefer a vegetarian chili, I have that as well here.
Award-winning Chili
This beef chili many will appreciate. It was well received my 1st time presenting it to others. I brought this chili to my first chili cook off party with neighbors and got 2nd place. Apparently I was tied with the 1st place winner until someone toward the end of the tasting broke our tie. I honestly wasn't expecting to get that close because I thought the crowd wouldn't enjoy this kind of bold flavor, so I was pleasantly surprised.
UPDATE: October 2017
I got 1st place this year for this same bold beef chili at our friends' annual chili cook-off; I was shocked. I'm very pleased though and happy to see others can enjoy this beefy chili as well.
Family Chili Feast
You will see below that some ingredients are a bit unorthodox for a "family" type chili, but it's those ingredients that make this chili the well balanced, flavorful chili that it is. I've got beer and coffee in the mix as you'll see, I believe they help this chili stand out a flavorwise. I'm surprised that even my 5 year olds like this chili since it's got a different flavor than they're used to. This bold beef chili works well for a family meal or a party on a cold day. The adults won't miss flavor and kids will enjoy a flavorful chili without whining about spiciness. No more bland chili needed to make the whole crew happy!
Chili Cooking
I only make this chili in my dutch oven now. I just LOVE my dutch oven for making dishes like this chili. It can absolutely be made in a standard big pot, but I love how the dutch oven browns the beef real nice, plus it has a great even heat. Now be cautious if you also make it in a dutch oven to remember it holds in the heat a lot more than a standard pot so watch for burning and adjust your temperature as necessary.
[amazon-related]
Please give this bold beef chili a try and let me know what you think! Try them with my cornbread muffins too. YUM!
PrintBold Beef Chili
This recipe makes about 10 cups of chili, a nice large pot for a crowd or just a hearty family meal and you can freeze leftovers if there's anything left after a couple days.
Try this chili with my cornbread muffins too!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 10 cups 1x
- Category: Chili
- Cuisine: comfort food
Ingredients
- 1-1 ½ lb tough beef, cut into ½" cubes (we use beef brisket, flank or skirt steak)
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 1 ½ cups white onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced (any color)
- 1 Tbsp worcestershire
- 1 bottle good strong hoppy beer (we use microbrew IPA)
- 1 cup strong coffee (cold is fine)
- 2 15-ounce cans diced roasted tomatoes (fire-roasted even better)
- 5 Tbsp tomato paste (we use a double concentrated tomato paste)
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 15-ounce cans dark red kidney beans, drained
- 1 15-ounce can white beans, drained (great northern are good)
- (*May substitute the 3 cans of beans for 1 bag of hydrated dried beans)
- ½-1 tablespoon Chili powder (smoked preferred, reserved for last half hour of cooking)
Dry Chili Spice Mixture (mix together ahead of time for ease)
- 1 Tbsp chili powder ( I prefer to use smoked chili powder, but it is sometimes hard to find.)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat a large dutch oven (or pot) on medium high heat.
- Once your pot is nice and hot add cubed beef and brown, then remove from pot. (Be sure to drain out liquid from pot so the meat can actually brown well)
- Brown ground beef now in the same pot and then return the cubed beef, adding the onions, bell pepper and worcestershire.
- Cook on medium low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Now add your chili spice mixture and cook about 2 minutes allowing your spices to bloom, stirring constantly.
- Now add the beer, coffee, brown sugar, tomatoes and tomato paste to the pot with the beef, onion and peppers.
- Bring pot to a boil then cover and simmer on low for 1 hr, stirring occasionally.
- Then add all the beans and simmer for another hour covered, stirring occasionally. In the last half hour of cooking add your final ½ tablespoon chili powder.
- *Optional-If you have time you can simmer for another 30 minutes if you like, but not necessary.
- Taste chili and adjust your salt if you feel necessary, your call.
Notes
Serve with your favorite chili toppings and enjoy! Even better the next day as leftovers since the flavors get to meld even more overnight.
It's great on it's own or on baked potato.
[…] honey cornbread muffins with a holiday meal, like Thanksgiving or as a fabulous accompaniment to a beefy or vegetarian chili. They’re also great with soups of all […]