Best Chili Ever

This is the chili that wins family arguments. No fancy ingredient list, no exotic peppers, just ground beef, onions, garlic, kidney beans, and a heavy hand with chili powder (five tablespoons in this recipe is no accident). Tomato juice instead of tomato sauce gives the broth a thinner, more drinkable consistency that lets the spices and meat take center stage.

The long simmer is the real work. An hour at low heat does what no shortcut can replicate, the chili powder mellows from raw to rounded, the onions disappear into the broth as natural sweetness, and the ground beef gives up its fat into the pot to coat every spoonful.

Draining the kidney beans is worth it, the canning liquid is starchy and salty in a way that throws off the balance of the simmer.

Pro Tips

• Brown the beef hard before adding the rest. A pale, gray-cooked beef gives you watery, flavorless chili. You want crusty brown bits.
• Bloom the chili powder and paprika in the rendered beef fat for 30 seconds before adding the liquids, this wakes up the spices and rounds out raw flavor.
• Use a Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot. Thin pans scorch chili on the bottom during the long simmer.
• Stir occasionally to keep the chili from catching, but don’t stir constantly or you’ll break the meat down too fine.
• Season at the end, not the start. The salt concentrates as the chili reduces, so adding it early can over-salt the finished pot.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of cumin and a square of dark chocolate for a deeper, Cincinnati-leaning version.
• Stir in a can of black beans alongside the kidney beans for variety.
• Top with sour cream, shredded sharp cheddar, and chopped scallions for a classic chili bar finish.