Teresa, I have been using this Chili recipe lately. It is plain, but you can jazz it up however you like.
I use Penzey's Chili 9000 in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Allrecipes

Speaking of basic chili, here's a link to a Penzeys recipe for "Basic Chili" lol! I've not made it because it calls for ground beef. If I did make it, NO WAY would I add all that chipotle. I would leave it out or just do a dash. I don't care for chipotle. Also, I would start with maybe 1/4 tsp. of the ground chili peppers, because those have a way of sneaking up on you, heat wise. But the regular chili powder, as long as you have a non-hot mix, is OK, it just has ancho chili in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penzeys basic chili

I've often made chili with a zillion ingredients and it was good....but I don't care for too much leftovers and with just me and the wife (who may or may not even eat any if I make it too hot..which I sometimes do without even realizing it). I sometimes make a real simple version. Somtimes it is really good and it is so easy.

Not sure how much you want to make but for two people it is so simple.

Brown a pound of ground beef (chuck is good...lots of flavor)...add an onion and garlic when cooking. Season with salt and pepper. Add a can of chili beans w/sauce and two cans of diced tomatoes..your choice of flavors...and simmer. You can add some chili powder if you like and of course chopped onions/peppers and cheese and sour cream. Sometimes those simple recipes are really good and with the canned tomatoes with seasonings and peppers and spice it is a real easy quick and delicious meal.

Duane

I make a very basic simple no heat chili this way. Brown chopped green peppers and onions..if you don't want to chop buy the small bags of frozen peppers and onions..they are fine too. Then add about a pound to a pound and a half of ground beef and keep browning. If you like garlic add it now. Then after the ground beef and onion mix has cooked for about 5 minutes put in two big cans of your favorite baked beans and a large can of crushed tomatoes. If you need a little more add a can of diced tomatoes too. Add 1 tsp or to taste of chili powder and cook slowly for an hour or two stirring at least every 15 minutes so it doesn't stick. My kids loved this recipe with the baked beans and I found out when I didn't have any other kind of beans to add so it was sort of accidental!
Joann

Teresa, I've been using this recipe for several years and we like it a lot. I just freeze the excess.

Nana's Chili

2-3 strips bacon, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced

Saute garlic with bacon until bacon is lightly browned.

Add:
1 C diced onions...saute' until tender.
Add 1 lb,ground chuck and continue to cook until beef is browned.
Add:
1 1/2 T chili powder
1 teas. cumin
1 teas. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teas. paprika
1/4 teas. oregano,

Note: (if you like it really hot, add a pod of dried hot pepper.)

Simmer 6 to 8 minutes.

Add:
1 can pintos
1 can pork and beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
1-2 cans water

Simmer 20 t0 30 minutes or longer

Salt to taste.

jude

Thank you all! I really wanted recipes from my friends here that are their tried and true chili recipes because there are 7 bazillion and 33 chili recipes on the web! LOL! I have all the spices to add w/o buying a seasoning packet (like I did in the olden days). I might even add a pinch of cinnamon and cocoa powder just to see if I like that. I do freeze leftover chili, but don't want to make a huge recipe as you mentioned, Duane. And I might have to try baked beans in chili just because I've never done that!

I bought a bag of small red beans at the Amish market which I like to use due to my personal prejudice against large dried beans. And I have a can of "chili beans" with extra seasonings in the pantry if I want to go that route.

At our recent Soup Lunch fundraiser at the office, one person brought a good chili that used Chili Starter (Magic?) in a can - but I looked for that and found out my closest store had discontinued it. That's when I posted here.

Many thanks!
Teresa

You know what though, making scratch chili isn't much to it. Just chili powder and cumin really and some tomato sauce too. I make it from scratch and from the packets and there's really not much difference. Tell ya a secret, my friend won first prize in a chili cook off using the 2 Alarm packets! HAHA! I have a recipe that's a family secret type recipe that's so simple. It's a recipe that my Mom's Aunt made at her restaurant probably in the 1950s. Here it is:

Aunt Tonie’s Famous Chili

Sauté 1# ground meat
Add 3 cloves minced garlic
1 med onion chopped and sauté
Add 2 heaping T chili powder
1 level tsp cumin
2 T flour and sauté
Add 8 oz can tomato sauce and water.
Cover and simmer 45 min to 1 hour
Add more water as needed. Salt to taste.

That's about as easy as it gets. My Mom made this every time she made chili and she was the world greatest cook IMHO...HEEHEE! Note: the water measure is subjective, I think I usually added a couple cups, really just add it to be as "watery" as up like your chili.

I forgot to say that if you like your chili with beans, you just add whatever beans you like to this basic recipe. I rinse them.

I don't know if you'd be interested Teresa, but I make a Cincinnati style chili that is mild and has lots of other flavors including cinnamon and corriander. I make it with kidney beans and fake meat, but the original recipe calls for ground beef. I love red beans too, they are becoming one of my favorites for chili. Of course Cincinnati chili is served over spaghetti, and comes topped with onions, cheddar cheese, and even crackers. I put the kidney beans and onions IN the chili, mix the chili up with broken spaghetti and cheddar cheese, and put it in a casserole pan and bake until the cheese is brown and bubbly. It is one of my company dishes to serve to a crowd. I always get raves. Below is the link to the recipe. I have made it several times. It is a little more sophisticated than the average Cincinnati chili recipe, but that's why I like it.

Cincinnati Style Chili

2 TBLSP veg. oil. I use EVOO
2 med. onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced (I'm not a garlic fan. Four cloves is about my max!)
4 TBLSP chili powder (I made up my own from a recipe in the back of Mark Bitterman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" cookbook, but you can get this stuff over the counter at any old grocery store.)
2 pounds ground beef chuck
1 TBLSP sweet paprika
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. corriander
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
1 TBLSP red wine vinegar
1 TBLSP molasses
1 cup tomato sauce (I actually use a can of diced tomatoes here, I like chunks of tomato in my chili)
1 1/2 cups water (I use a mix of tomato sauce and veg. bouillon, or V8 juice)

Toppings: Spaghetti, cooked and drained, kidney beans, grated cheddar, chopped white onion, and oyster crackers as accompaniments. Use all or just some. I make mine different, I don't use 2 lbs. ground beef, I use 1 lb. and add the kidney beans right in with the chili. I make this in the crockpot after browning the meat.

In a large heavy pot heat the oil over med. heat and cook the ground beef, stirring until the beef is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat and discard. Add the onions and garlic and sautee until softened. Add the chili powder and all other spices up to the salt and pepper. Stir to combine and cook one minute. Then add the tomatoes/sauce and water/sauce, bay leaf, red wine vinegar, molasses and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours, adding additional water, if necessary, to keep it at the consistency you like. I add the kidney beans into this mix.

When ready to serve, discard the bay leaf and adjust the s&p. Serve the chili over cooked spaghetti topped with cheddar cheese and onion and even oyster crackers if you like, but to me that's overkill.

Like I said, I mix the spaghetti and cheese and chili together and put it in a casserole dish and heat it until the cheese gets bubbly in the oven at about 350 degrees, and serve it like chili mac.

Boy, makes me want to have a big chili party!! This would be a great thing to serve for lunch if you're hosting a lot of family over Thanksgiving.

Teresa - there is a product on the market called Caroll Shelbys Chili Kit. It contains a pkg of seasoning, a pkg of salt, a package of masa flour and a small pkg of cayenne. You need 2 lbs of meat, 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce and small amount of water. The masa is used to thicken the last few minutes and adds a wonderful flavor. It makes a really thick chili that works well for burritos. The product itself ranges in price from $2.00 to $3.00. Walmart has the best price at about $1.66.

There are no "artificial" ingredients in the seasoning pkg. You can use ground meat or chili meat.

The CF'ers from Texas will recognize the name Caroll Shelby. He was a famous Texan race car driver. When he retired he began to market the chili is was famous for.

I am not connected to this product in any way and do not profit from promoting it.

Up North Teresa

Here is a link that might be useful: Caroll Shelby's Chili Kit

I start the same as many. Brown ground beef, onion, green peppers, garlic. I put half of the chili pepper powder while this is doing its thing. Some jalapeno's from a jar. Dump in a can of diced tomatoes, a small can of paste. Rather than 2 cans of tomatoes I now dump in a jar of Hernadez Salsa. 1 can kidney beans drained, 1 can black beans, drained, one of those single serving cans of corn (I like the color) more chili pepper powder, simmer for awhile.

This morning I've got a pot of chili simmering as I type. I combined a couple of recipes, plus added about 2 TB catsup and 1 TB BBQ sauce. It's pretty spicy and I used 1 can of stewed tomatoes and 1 can of baked beans. Just sampled this and I like it fine - but the small baked beans are kind of lost, so maybe next time I'll use kidney beans or chili beans.

Thanks for all the recipes and suggestions! I've saved them all.

Teresa

I don't know why but I can buy various types of roasts cheaper than I can buy ground beef more often than not.

So I generally use small cubes of beef. Cooking time depends on the type of roast but we now find ourselves not enjoying a ground meat chili as much as a small stew meat chili.

for what it is worth.

I always, always start with bacon and then use the bacon renderings to do the onion, garlic and for a second or two the seasonings. Then I remove all that into my stainless Dutch oven and proceed to brown the meat in small batches (so it doesn't steam in the pan) and transfer that into the Dutch oven.

no other veg, no beans, just a plop of T paste and water. Into the oven. (Sometimes I add a jar of chopped, drained tomatoes...depends on how it looks)

I use Alton's trick of crushed tortilla chips if I need a thickener and any rice, beans or pasta is a side that the chili is served over.

Cumin. don't forget the cumin.

When all the planets align the above turns out pretty darn good. Its still good, even when they don't.

LPink, thanks for sharing that recipe. I'll have to try it. The combo of tomato, allspice, cloves, & cinnamon is part of my heritage. I think I read somewhere that a Greek came up with the original Cincinnati chili. I really like your idea of combining everything into a casserole.

I forgot also that I'm from Texas so that's the way we ate ours in our old Bohunk family. My Aunt(entire family) was/is Czech.

The last time I made chili, I made the Wendy's copy cat recipe that you can find all over the web. It was very good, I have to say! AND it did taste very much like Wendy's Chili which is surprisingly good!

Wouldn't it be SWEEEET if we could edit our posts....HA!

I know I'm late to the party and I don;t have a recipe per se.

I brown a pound or so of ground beef with some garlic and add a large jar or maybe two of my home canned stewed tomatoes. I prefer stewed tomatoes because of the of the celery and onions.

For spices I add as much as 2 TBSP of chili powder, maybe more, smoked paprika, a bit of cumin and salt and pepper.

For the beans I use 2 cans of red kidney beans (drained) and one can of pork and beans.

Then simmer for as much as two hours.

Served with a selection of sour cream, grated cheddar, chopped green onions, hot sauces and hot pepper flakes.

I posted this on the soup thread. Its my favorite hamburger chili.

I made this yesterday and we all thought it was great and not greasy or fatty at all the way some chilies are.
I have made it many times before and think it's super easy and very tasty.
I posted my notes and changes at the bottom.

From Woodie:

I'm glad you enjoyed the chili - it is a simple and basic recipe but we like it and have Craig Claiborne to thank for it. Here's the recipe, Coleen.
Chili con Carne
Here is my standard recipe which is an adaptation from Craig Claiborne's low salt recipe from a People Magazine celebrity cookbook from the 70's.
1 tablespoon oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1-1/4 pounds ground turkey
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups fresh or 2 pound can diced unsalted tomatoes (I like fire roasted)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed hot pepper flakes
(optional 1/2 cup red wine)
Canned kidney beans or black beans or white beans, drained (optional)
Heal oil in skillet and cook onion and pepper til wilted.
Add meat and brown.
Sprinkle the meat with garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano and basil. Stir to blend. Add bay leaf, pepper, tomatoes, vinegar, hot red pepper and wine (if using).
Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.
Add kidney beans during last 15 minutes (if using).
Woodie (Dudette)

Bumblebeez Notes:
- ground chuck browned and drained
-Fire Roasted tomatoes -2 and 1/2 cans 14 ounce cans
-1 1/2 tablespoons McCormick Chili powder, it has salt and 3 would be way to salty for us, 1 1/2 was perfect
-No hot pepper flakes, we don't like heat
1/2 cup red wine
1 can rinsed black beans
No bay leaf
Evoo 2 tablespoons

I came to post about using fire-roasted tomatoes as well, I see bumblebeez got there first, so I am 'seconding' that suggestion. I also 'wave' a container of chipotle over the pot since I don't do heat but the rest of my family does.

I've tried the fire-roasted tomatoes from Muir Glen and while I liked the flavor, I didn't like the charred bits of skin that clung to the tomato flesh. So I decided those weren't for me. I prefer to use the canned stewed tomatoes for the extra veggies, as Sharon (chase) mentioned. I think I've decided I prefer ground cayenne pepper to the crushed red pepper flakes. I don't like biting into the seeds of the pepper flakes.

When I get a chance to visit the new Penzey's in Raleigh, I want to explore their other chili peppers and chili powder blends. I usually use their medium chili powder blend.

I added 1/4 t. each of smoked paprika and cinnamon to the chili I made this weekend. Plus extra cumin, oregano, cayenne, and black pepper to the 1 1/2 TB chili powder. Don't know if I could detect the smoked paprika, but I could faintly taste the cinnamon.

Teresa

Bloody Mary mix is very good in chili in lieu of the tomatoes. That is, if you have some around that needs to be used up. Last batch of chili that I made, I used some Wick Fowler's 2 Alarm chili seasoning & a 64 oz jug of Blood Mary mix (2# ground beef). DSII said it was the best chili that I've made in a 'long time'. I always add a can of corn because I like the color & that little sweet tidbit.

When we moved here to central WI, we were aghast & totally grossed out to learn that a lot of people around here put macaroni in their chili. I like beans, good old pinto beans, in my chili but no slimy pasta, thank you!!

cilantro, I think they call chili w/ macaroni "chili mac." Has no appeal for me either.

I think I tried the Wick's years ago and it was probably good. I just feel I ought to use up all these spices that I've got rather than buying a mix of spices, no matter how good they are. Just my frugal nature I guess.

Just discovered something: cold chili from the fridge doesn't have the "heat" of the spices that chili heated does! Does that make sense?

Teresa

Spices wear down. Day old chili can benefit from another jalapeno and a sprinkle of ground cumin/chili powder.

Why use a recipe? The original post had everything but the spices. Cumin is your basic chili spice. Chili powder probably has cumin, garlic, salt, and some ground pepper powder. Sometimes I like garlic and sometimes I'm not in the mood.

Beans have lots of character to add. I often use kidney beans as they have a distinct flavor that I like. Chili will probably be more familiar if you use red beans. Go wild and mix red, black, and white beans! Canned beans need to be rinsed. Dry beans will need extra salt after they have cooked. A 6.6lb institutional can of kidney beans can have 15,000mg of salt! I prefer dry beans because they are cheaper. Soak them one hour or so in cold water then dump the soak water... it degasses them.

I'll be boiling my turkey carcass for chili meat. I mix it half and half with beef. Poor old Mr. Possum out in my garden will get nothing but boiled dry turkey bones... I'm a grinch that way. If boiling a carcass don't add anything until you pick the bones out with a slotted spoon. Usually I pick all the meat out to get all the bones... birds have some small ones that hide.

As another posted noted I can get beef roasts cheaper then ground beef and it is leaner. Ground chuck is probably the easy meat to use.

Tomatoes are the key to great chili. Spices are very important but without a good tomato no good chili can come from them. My favorite are my garden tomatoes. Yellows make a sweet chili and reds make a sour chili. Red Gold are the canned tomatoes I'll buy but they are a poor substitute for homegrown.

It has been hard to get good cumin the last couple years. Some of the best I've had was GFS ground cumin which is a restaurant supply brand. Penzeys is okay but nothing special. They do note they can't get the good Iranian cumin because of political issues. If you have an Indian ethnic grocer available they probably have a decent cumin in stock. I have a whopper mortar and pestle so I crack my own seed... years ago I chopped them on a cutting board with a mini-cleaver. Some like to toast them in a frying pan before adding to the chili.

I like cilantro and buy or grow fresh. Use some in you chili. The leftover can be cut up with sissors and left to dry on a newspaper or paper plate. Turn it a couple times with a spatula. When dry put it in a jar in the fridge... better then any store bought dry cilantro!

Love my peppers. Can't say enough about fresh hot peppers. Serreno are my favorite store bought. I have two kinds of habenera, a cayenne, and a jalapeno potted and growing in my kitchen. They self pollinate so you will have peppers all year long from a potted pepper plant. They live for years! My stupid cats finally learned the super hot Red Savinas are not cat toys!.. they used to pick my habeneras and bat them around. They have about eaten the leaves off my cayenne... it may die.

It is not just chili... it is an adventure! Throw out those recipes and wing it! What is to go wrong? Start simple and someday you will be bold... toss in a couple mushrooms, a fresh cayenne pepper, some chopped cabbage,... oh what else is in the fridge? Leftover chicken to use up? A lone stalk of celery? Bits of a fresh garlic bulb? Chili loves to accept your little bits that otherwise might go to waste. I'll use up my turkey not because it make special and great chili but uses up the bird... and it is good. Yes Grandma... I can hear you yelling not to waste a scrap.. is it my imagination or can I really hear you from the other side?

: )
lyra

Yes, I have decided that cayenne is my favorite "hot" chili. I have been tryin to use up some of those chili pepper flakes and I just don't like them for the same reason Teresa, I don't like the seeds, which are very hot, but overall the peppers give an uneven heat to the chili. I like ground cayenne, I have a lot of control over the heat that way. Also Tabasco sauce, which is made I think out of cayenne. I just could never get into chipotle. Someday I'm going to have to try smoked paprika or aleppo peppers. Fresh paprika is good in chili, but only if it is fresh. Right now I'm focusing on using up my parprika, chipotle and red peppers. Bunnyman is right, dried ground peppers loose their zip fast, so I buy them in small quantities and try not to keep them sitting around for years and years, lol!

My "secret ingredient" in chili is V8 juice. I add it to the chili if I think it is too thick and needs some depth to the broth. I've been less than impressed with the fire roasted tomatoes, but I do like to occasionally add sundried tomatoes to my chilis, for a real strong tomato hit. That's if I'm doing it in the crockpot.

What about the spicy V8 juice, Lpink?

I tried canned chipotle peppers once in a recipe and it was too hot for what I wanted in the dish, so I haven't bothered with them again. Not too keen on sundried tomatoes either unless they are really soft. Don't like bits of leathery tomatoes in my food.

I might increase the amount of the smoked paprika in the next pot of chili that I make. And perhaps add a TB of tomato paste instead of ketchup. I keep small containers of tomato paste in the freezer - just a couple of TBs per container. I did like the TB or so of Kraft BBQ sauce that I added, but I've got another good smokey BBQ sauce in the fridge that I will use next time.

At least this latest chili was way better than the turkey chili I made a month or so ago. I think I will blend that smooth and "kick it up a notch" to make hot dog chili sauce with it.