Grandmas Ohio Farm Chili

Ohio farm chili is its own animal. Three cans of condensed tomato soup stand in for the base, which gives it a thick, slightly sweet backbone that pure tomato chili doesn’t have. A pound of ground beef and a pound of hot Italian sausage go in together, and the sausage does the heavy lifting on spice so you don’t need a long ingredient list to get depth.

The defining move: serve it over mashed potatoes, not cornbread or crackers. It’s a Midwest farmhouse thing and it makes the whole bowl.

Brown the meat, drain the grease, throw everything in one pot, simmer 45 minutes. That’s the whole recipe.

Kitchen Tips

• Don’t skip draining the grease after browning. Between the beef and sausage, there’s a lot of fat that would make the chili greasy rather than rich.
• The bay leaves are easy to forget. Fish them out before serving.
• If you want more heat, lean toward hot Italian sausage over mild and add an extra splash of hot sauce.