My Award Winning Chili Recipe

My Award Winning Chili Recipe

My homemade chili is as comforting as comfort food can get! This recipe has won many church chili cook-offs and for the first time ever, I’m sharing this recipe with you! I hope you love this award-winning chili recipe as much as I do.

What Makes This an Easy Recipe?

What makes this award-winning chili recipe so easy is first, it’s a one-pot meal so clean-up is minimal. Second, there are a handful of seasonings and ingredients and minimal prep time. Third, you just have to stir the chili while simmering every so often, and it’s done in just over an hour. No pressure cooking dry beans!

The Ingredients

For my favorite homemade seasoning salt recipe check out my friend Holliday’s recipe. She makes her own seasoning salt blend and I love it!

My Award Winning Chili Recipe

Award Winning Chili Recipe

This homemade chili recipe has won many chili cookoff awards. It's simple and easy to make and everyone loves it!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 10 people

Ingredients

  

• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 3 tbsp chili powder (to taste, can add more if desired)
• 2 tsp seasoning salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 8 cups water
• 3- 15 oz cans of any type of chili or pinto bean (I use the mild chili beans)
• 2- 15 oz cans of any type of white or navy bean
• 1- 15 oz can baked beans or pork and beans
• 2- 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 large white onion, diced into small pieces

Instructions

 

• In a 7 Quart or larger pot brown the hamburger and diced onions together. I use a potato masher to break up the hamburger but you can leave it in larger pieces if you like.
  
• When the ground beef and onions are fully cooked and no pink in the meat, add in the salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and seasoning salt and stir.
  
• Then add the brown sugar and stir again.
  
• Add 8 cups of water and stir.
  
• Next, add in your canned beans. You can use any type of canned beans you like. The chili or pinto beans and any type of white bean is my favorite and I always add baked beans as the sweetness adds a nice flavor along with the brown sugar. Kidney beans and black beans are an option too. If you want to add more or less beans you can do that as well. This is just what I use and it comes out every time.
  
• Next, put the two cans of diced tomatoes in a blender and blend slightly. Dump into the pot and stir.
• Turn heat to medium or medium-low and simmer for about one hour or so. May add a little time if you simmer it slower. Make sure to stir every so often and check to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. Each type of pot or pan is different so stir frequently to make sure nothing is sticking and burning on the bottom of the pot.
• The chili will start to reduce down and it may look a little runny at first but it thickens up on its own after you are done cooking it. Taste test it at about this point and if you need more salt, pepper, or chili powder you can add more here and stir.
  
• Serve in a bowl with cheddar cheese or any type of cheese you like. You can add tortilla chips which is what we typically do or you can dump it over fritos and make it into a frito pie. Whatever your preference is! I've even made Navajo tacos and nachos with this chili recipe. It keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days and it's a great leftover!

Keyword award winning chili recipe, beans, beef and beans, chili recipe, comfort food, fall recipes, homecooked, homecooking, homemade chili, homemade chili recipe

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. The one thing that is also great about this is you can add whatever else you like. Sometimes I just use whatever canned beans I have on hand or if I have fresh tomatoes, I’ll add those too. I’ve even added a chopped green pepper. It always tastes good no matter what I’ve added. This recipe is not spicy in any way. If you want to make it spicy you could add some hot sauce or red pepper flakes. If you are a meat lover, you could add another pound of ground beef.

Happy Fall and Happy Halloween! Making this homemade chili is our tradition on Halloween. I always serve it with cornbread and my homemade honey butter.

I also love to make my homemade  Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins too! YUM!

Enjoy!

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