Chili Con Carne
A recipe for rich and authentic chili con carne, a spicy stew of beef and chilies, including ancho, guajillo and jalapeno, and many wonderful seasonings. Make it with or without beans. You can also make it with tomatoes, if desired. It’s very easy to customize to your own preferred spice level.
“Chili con Carne”. Three little words that describe such a wonderful meal. It literally translates from Spanish to “Chili with Meat“, and as generic as that sounds, it is filled with fantastic flavor.
Let’s discuss this wonderful meal in a bowl.
What is Chili con Carne?
At its core, Chili con Carne is a spicy stew of meat with a homemade seasoned chili sauce. The meat is usually beef, but you can also make it with pork or a combination of the two, or other meats to your preference. The chili sauce is made with chili powders or dried chilies that are rehydrated and cooked into a sauce, usually with onions and garlic, and seasonings like cumin and oregano.
Where is Chili con Carne From?
Chili con carne originated in the region spreading Southern Texas and Northern Mexico. It was originally a working class dish, something easy to prepare with basic ingredients, though it has spread in popularity due to its incredible flavor. It is named by Texas as it’s official state food.
Tomatoes or No Tomatoes?
Tomatoes or tomato sauce are often included in chili con carne dishes, and even though “chili con carne” translates literally to “chili with meat”, you CAN include beans if you’d like. However, be prepared for “chili con carne” purists to argue that chili doesn’t contain beans.
Beans or no beans, it’s great either way! I’ll take both!
About the Chili Peppers
I like to include spicy fresh peppers in the mix, either jalapeno peppers, which have a bit of spice, to serrano peppers, which give a nice level of heat.
If I’m making it just for me, I’ll include habanero peppers for some great heat. Of course you can go with any of the superhot chili peppers, you crazy spicy food lovers! You know I love you guys.
For the dried pods, I use ancho peppers and guajillo peppers, which are filled with wonderful flavor.
Let’s talk about how we make it, shall we?
How to Make Chili con Carne – the Recipe Method
First, make your chili sauce by lightly toasting dried ancho and guajillo peppers in a dry pan about a minute or 2 per side. This will help to release the oils. The skins will puff up and darken a bit.
Remove from heat and cool enough to handle. Remove the stems and pour out the seeds.
Soak the peppers in hot water for 20 minutes, or until they are nice and soft.
Add them to a food processor with 1.5 cups of the soaking water and a bit of salt to taste. Process until nice and smooth.
Set aside for now. Look at how wonderful this sauce is. It is incredibly flavorful.
Add the cubed beef to a large bowl and toss with the paprika, Mexican oregano, black pepper, brown sugar, cumin, coriander and a bit of salt.
Make sure everything is nice and coated.
Heat the oil in a large pot and add the seasoned beef along with the jalapenos and onion.
Cook them down 6-7 minutes, searing the beef all over.
Add the garlic and stir. Cook another minute.
Pour in the reserved chili sauce and stir. Cook it for 5 minutes to let the flavor develop a bit.
Stir in the 2 cups of beef broth and bring to a quick boil. If you’d prefer a soupier chili, add in 4 cups of beef broth.
If you are using the optional additions, add them in now.
Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the beef is very tender.
Serve with your favorite fixins!
If you want even MORE developed flavor, cool the whole pot of chili, cover it, and refrigerate it overnight to let the flavors mingle. Heat and serve it up the next day!
Recipe Tips
- Best Meat for Chili con Carne. I’ve used chuck roast for this recipe, and I feel it is ideal. It is easy to cube and it has a lot of flavor. However, you can try it out with other cuts of beef or steak. Or, it is also delicious with ground beef, which is often a time-saving solution.
- What Beans in Chili con Carne? I did not include any beans here, and again, purists will tell you that beans do not belong in chili con carne. However, this is your pot of chili, so if you want beans, add beans! Great beans for this dish include red kidney beans, black beans, or great northern beans.
Looking for a more basic chili con carne?
How Do You Make Basic Chili con Carne?
You can easily make a basic chili con carne by using ground or cubed beef that is seared off, then mixed in a pot with tomato sauce seasoned with a good amount of chili powder. This will save some time from rehydrating the chili peppers for making your chili sauce. Just toss it all into a Dutch oven or big stew pot. However, you won’t achieve quite the same flavor. It will be tasty, but there is much to be said about making the chili sauce from scratch. It’s hard to beat.
About the Fixins
I usually like to keep my fixins simple and serve it with spicy chili flakes and fresh chopped cilantro, and sometimes sliced roasted jalapenos or serrano peppers.
SO GOOD this way!
But popular toppings include shredded cheese, crema or sour cream, diced tomatoes, crunchy tortilla chips or corn chips, and chopped tomatoes. Go to town with whatever you love!
Developing Extra Chili con Carne Flavor
As mentioned above, if you want even MORE developed flavor in your chili, cool the whole pot after cooking, cover it, then refrigerate it overnight to let the flavors mingle.
Heat and serve it up the next day! This waiting period really brings the flavors together into a harmonious pot of chili that you’re sure to love. However, if you decide you don’t have time to refrigerate it, it’s still GREAT as is!
I love it!
That’s it, my friends! Let me know how it turns out for you. And please let me know if you include beans and/or tomatoes with yours. I’m super curious to hear your preference!
Try Some of My Other Popular Chili Recipes
- Chili Colorado
- Chili Verde
- Slow Cooker Southwest Beef Chili
- White Bean Chicken Chili
- Homemade Roasted Tomatillo Pork Chili
- Pork Chili with Roasted Red Hatch Chili Peppers
- Shrimp and Red Bean Chili
- Cincinnati Chili
- Beef Chili
- Texas Chili
Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.
A recipe for rich and authentic chili con carne, a spicy stew of beef and chilies, including ancho, guajillo and jalapeno, and many wonderful seasonings. Make it with or without beans.
- 4 guajillo peppers
- 4 ancho peppers
- Salt to taste
- 3.5-4 pound chuck roast cut into ¾-1 inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 jalapeno peppers chopped
- 1 large onion chopped
- 10 cloves garlic chopped
- 2-4 cups beef stock
- OPTIONAL ADDITIONS Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, chili or kidney beans, extra spicy chili powders
- FOR SERVING Crema or sour cream, fresh chopped herbs, spicy chili flakes or chopped chiles, shredded cheese – all your favorite chili fixins. I served mine with spicy chili flakes and fresh chopped cilantro.
- Make your chili sauce first by lightly toasting the dried ancho and guajillo peppers in a dry pan about a minute or 2 per side. This will help to release the oils.
- Remove from heat and cool enough to handle. Remove the stems and pour out the seeds.
- Soak the peppers in hot water for 20 minutes, or until they are nice and soft.
- Add them to a food processor with 1.5 cups of the soaking water and a bit of salt to taste. Process until nice and smooth. Set aside for now.
- Add the cubed beef to a large bowl and toss with the paprika, Mexican oregano, black pepper, brown sugar, cumin, coriander and a bit of salt. Make sure everything is nice and coated.
- Heat the oil in a large pot and add the seasoned beef along with the jalapenos and onion. Cook them down 6-7 minutes, searing the beef all over.
- Add the garlic and stir. Cook another minute.
- Pour in the reserved chili sauce and stir. Cook it for 5 minutes to let the flavor develop a bit.
- Stir in the 2 cups of beef broth and bring to a quick boil. If you’d prefer a soupier chili, add in 4 cups of beef broth. If you are using the optional additions, add them in now.
- Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the beef is very tender.
- Serve with your favorite fixins!
Serves 6-8
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This looks delicious! What can I substitute for the brown sugar to make it keto friendly?
Thanks, Jessica. There are some brown sugar substitute products on the market that are keto friendly. You can also use maple extract, which will have similar flavor, though maybe not so much the texture. Stevia is good for sure for a touch of sweet. Let me know what you wind up using.
Americans living in France here. The tips you give in this post on how to use the dried ancho and guajillo chiles for this dish were really helpful! We got a gift from a friend recently of a variety of dried chiles and the oregano that she got from her recent visit to Mexico. Looking on-line you get a lot of advice on how to do it without the authentic chiles but seeing your way of re-hydrating and puréeing them for this dish made it perfect. We did it with beef cheeks and the “oxtail” which is a standard at a farm stand we like to go to. Very flavorful. Thanks!
That’s great to hear, Lucy! I’m glad you found my advice helpful, and that you enjoyed the recipe. Cheers, and thanks for sharing!!!
Can you make this in a crockpot?
Shawn, absolutely. When you’re ready to simmer in the pot, just move everything to the crock pot and cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 4-6 hours, until the meat is nice and tender and the flavors have developed. Let me know how it goes for you.
Used this recipe as a guide for 1 kilo (little over 2 pounds) ground grass fed beef (would have used chuck but had already bought the ground meat – next time will do the chunks). Used 2 ancho and 2 guajillo chilies. Best chili con carne I have ever made! Also added some chipotle chili powder for a little more heat. Next Time I will try 3 ancho and 3 guajillo chilies for similar amount of meat. I am looking forward to playing with this a little. One question. What kind of paprika do you generally use? I have at least 6 different types of paprika, 2 Hungarian and at least 4 Spanish. I used the Spanish, maybe 1 and 1/2 tsp regular mild and similar amount smoked picante. Glad I came across your site. Thanks for posting this. I intend to check out your other recipes
Thanks MUCH, Paul. I appreciate it. I use either a good quality Hungarian paprika or a smoked paprika I picked up along the way, though many work for this recipe. So many to work with!
We tried this the other night. It was amazing!! I used 2 cups of beef stock and I also added 2 dried chipotle peppers for a smoky flavor. We love chipotles. We also used chicken instead of beef. It turned out so good!! We served ours over rotini noodles. My husband loved this so much it is in our favorite recipes. Tonight we are going to have it again and put it over mashed potatoes with some corn on top. He has came up with so many ideas of what to do with this. It is definitely going to be a staple recipe in our house. Thank you so much for sharing
Outstanding, Jessica! Super happy to hear! Yes, there are so many ways to enjoy this recipe. I love the addition of the chipotle. Glad you guys like it! Enjoy!
I’m growing several different peppers, can I also use fresh guajillos and anchos (and jalapenos and habanero) instead of dried?
Freek, yes, you can use fresh peppers. However, dried pods do bring a very distinctive flavor to the dish, so if you’re not using dried, you may want to incorporate chili powder (particularly guajillo powder). Let me know how it turns out for you.
Michael, I live in the Netherlands. It’s impossible to get a hold of Mexican peppers here, which is why I’m growing my own. I added some chile powder (the variety isn’t mentioned) with the peppers from the recipe. It turned out delicious, but I think the flavor from dried peppers would add an extra burst of flavor. When I have some more ripe peppers I’ll dry them, see how that works out.
Glad you enjoyed it, Freek! Great to hear.
Yet another winner. I altered the recipe a bit to use a slow cooker (I just have a thing about low & slow!). Everyone came looking for seconds.
Excellent, Gerald! I’m glad everyone loved it. I appreciate it!
i’m from the uk and we got a load of cheap irish lean beef chunks in our freezer – used some of them for this and as my partner doesn’t really like ‘hot’ i swapped the guajillo papers for a home grown ‘Ohnivec’ dried chilli – really tasty recipe, though i did all put some fried smoky bacon lardons in as well. Really tasty with cheddar cheese and chilli scones.
Excellent! I love the addition of the bacon. Nice touch.
This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing this great recipe! It’s a cold winter wonderland where I am right now, and this warmed the family up.
Great, Rob. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
OMG this chili is awesome. Thank you I couldn’t wait so I tried it just after it was done. Cant wait to have some tomorrow.
Excellent, Gary! It is SO good even after it just finishes, but the next day, BOOM! HUGE on flavor for sure. Glad you enjoyed it.
I am making this RIGHT NOW! Going to resist the urge to devour a big helping of it tonight, but tomorrow it’s game on.
Oh yeah! Awesome!
Absolutely outstanding! Thank you! Would be absolutely delicious made with venison also!
Yes! Venison would be GREAT here for sure.
I forgot to mention to you Michael that many years ago when I was about 40 I found the most delicious recipe for chili con carne in a tiny paper pamphlet from a popular Mexican restaurant down in Brownsville, Texas, that the owner sold for $1, it was his favorite recipes that he served in his restaurant. His chile con carne was so delicious, but I only made it once before my home was flooded (the water mark reached my clothes rod) & I lost everything & had not memorized all of the seasonings used, but the taste has lingered many years in my memory & I had never been able to duplicate it. When tasting your delicious chili con carne my taste buds were overjoyed as your recipe far surpassed the one of 41 years ago. Yours, has now been saved in three different cookbooks of mine. My husband absolutely loves this chili! My children used to watch a cartoon where the villain had a dog that love his special treat & when he was tossed one in the air one he was so ecstatic after grabbing it he would float back down to the earth. That was the delight of my taste buds after the first bite of your delicious chili con carne! They also thrilled to the taste of you Cajun Beans & Rice. Thank you so much for these delicious recipes!
Wow, Margo! I have never received such a compliment! It means the world to me that you and your family love it so much. I GREATLY appreciate your comments. Enjoy!!!
I just tried tour recipe yesterday. It’s quite different from my own recipe, but I wanted to faithfully follow yours. I loved it! Full of flavors and very authentic!
I choose to include tomatoes and red beans and to top it with sour cream, shredded cheddar , cilantro and sliced jalapeños! NOM NOM NOM!
Outstanding, Jeremie! I’m glad you enjoyed it! NOM!
Omg! That chili looks awesome with all the heat. Will be great on rice or some naan to scoop up all the deliciousness. Love this!
That would be AWESOME, actually! Love it.
The peppers look so beautiful, but it also makes me wonder if I can take so much heat? This recipe looks great!
It isn’t TOO spicy, Diana. It might be just right for you. =)
I love how chunky and flavourful this chilli is!
Thanks, Tilly! I like to include extra “carne” for sure.
Oh man, this looks like the most delicious chili ever!! I LOVE all those peppers and know my husband would be thrilled if I made this on a Sunday game day afternoon!
Just right for game day!
Mmmmm, this is my kind of comfort food! Such a great combo and perfect for the cold wintery nights we’re having!
This will certainly warm things up!
Your photography is beautiful! Simply beautiful! Pinning this recipe for when my MIL comes over!
That’s great, Cindy!
I just love this recipe! The big chunks of meat and all of those amazing seasonings – definitely a must try!
Thanks, Lauren!