Chili con carne: minced beef, red kidney beans and cocoa, in one pot
The Tex-Mex stew that became a party dish and a cold-evening dinner in Poland: minced beef browned hard, onion, pepper, cumin, sweet paprika and chili flakes, tomatoes, canned red beans and a teaspoon of cocoa that adds depth nobody can name. An hour in one pot, six portions, better the next day than the first.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Browning 15 min
- Simmering 40 min
- Beans and serving 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBrown the meat hard
Heat the oil in a wide pot over high heat. Add the meat, break it up with a spoon and fry 6–8 minutes, stirring rarely, until it releases its water, the water evaporates and the meat starts to brown and catch on the base. That browning is the flavour of the whole dish; grey, stewed meat makes a bland chili.
Ingredients: 600 g minced beef · 2 tbsp oil · 2 pcs onions · 3 cloves garlic · 1 pcs red pepper · 2 tbsp tomato paste · 2 tsp ground cumin · 2 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp chili flakes · 1 tsp dried oregano · 1 tsp cocoa powder · 500 ml tomato passata · 300 ml stock · 800 g canned red kidney beans · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 tsp sugar
TipIf the pot is small, brown the meat in two batches. Too much at once stews in its own juices instead of browning.
Water gone, meat browningAdd the vegetables
Dice the onion, cut the pepper into 1 cm dice, chop the garlic. Add to the meat and fry 5 minutes over medium heat, until the onion softens and lifts the browned bits from the base.
Onion, pepper, garlic on the browned meatFry the spices and paste
Add the tomato paste, cumin, paprika, chili flakes, oregano and cocoa. Fry 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant and the paste darkens. Fried spices give up their whole aroma; tipped into liquid they taste raw.
TipCocoa doesn't make the chili chocolatey. It adds bitterness and depth, as in a Mexican mole. A teaspoon is enough; more and you start to taste it.
A minute of frying spices and pasteSimmer
Pour in the passata and stock, add the salt, pepper and sugar, stir, scraping the base. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer with the lid ajar 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens and the fat rises to the top.
Forty minutes with the lid ajarAdd the beans
Drain and rinse the beans in a sieve. Add to the pot and simmer another 10 minutes. Beans only at the end: cooked from the start they collapse into mush. Taste: add salt, more chili if too mild, or a teaspoon of sugar if the tomatoes are sharp. Meanwhile cook the rice.
Ingredients: 300 g rice · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 100 g hard cheese, grated · ½ bunch chives · 1 pcs lime
Beans for the last ten minutesServe
Chili over rice, a spoon of sour cream, cheese, chives and the juice of a lime wedge on top. Keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes perfectly in portions. Reheat with a splash of water.
Sour cream, cheese, chives, lime
Before you start
With chunks of beef
Instead of mince, 700 g beef in 2 cm dice, stewed 2 hours with an extra 300 ml of stock: the Texan version, more like a goulash.
Vegetarian
Instead of meat, add 250 g red lentils with the passata plus 500 ml extra water, and a third can of beans at the end. The same simmering time; stir more often, as lentils catch easily.
For nachos and tortillas
Thickened chili (10 minutes longer without the lid) as a filling for cheese tortillas, or over nacho chips baked with cheese 10 minutes at 200 °C.
