Spare Spoons Kitchen
Best
Beef Chili
A deep, smoky beef-and-bean chili built in layers — hard-browned beef, poblanos and jalapeños, spices toasted in the fat, a chipotle crushed into the base, and the quiet secret weapons: a spoonful of cocoa and a splash of cider vinegar at the end. Mostly unattended simmering; entirely worth it.
Ingredients
Before you start
Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.
- The four toasting spices — chili powder, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon — measured into one small bowl — they toast in the hot fat for just a minute and turn bitter if they catch, so there's no measuring them out mid-step
- Onion, poblanos, jalapeños, and garlic chopped before the beef goes in — the browning keeps moving and you want the vegetables ready to follow, not to be cutting while the pan waits
Method
Cook's notes
The cocoa and cinnamon are not dessert. Cocoa adds color, body, and a low earthy bitterness that balances the tomatoes; the cinnamon reads as warmth. Nobody will name them — they'll just say it tastes deep.
Heat control lives in three places: the chili powder (start at 2 tbsp), the jalapeño seeds (leave them out for mild), and the chipotle (use half for a gentler pot). Built as written it's a medium — present, not punishing.
The vinegar finish matters. A long-simmered pot goes flat without acid. The 1½ teaspoons at the end won't taste like vinegar — it tastes like everything else, but louder.
The pot: a heavy Dutch oven browns better and simmers steadier than a thin stockpot — this is the same workhorse that makes the pot roast and the no-knead bread.
With cornbread — the skillet cornbread was built for a pot like this.
Want it thicker, the Texas way? Whisk 2 tbsp masa harina (Maseca, international/baking aisle) into ¼ cup cold water and stir it in for the last 10 minutes — it thickens the pot and adds a faint sweet-corn note that points straight at the cornbread.
Even better tomorrow. Like most chilis, it deepens overnight. It also freezes beautifully — flat in zip bags, up to 3 months.
Easier, if you like
- Skip the fresh peppers: a 4-oz can of diced green chiles (Hatch or Old El Paso, international aisle) stands in for the poblanos, and a pinch of cayenne for the jalapeños. Less chopping, still a very good pot.
- No chipotle open? 1 teaspoon smoked paprika + a pinch of cayenne gets you most of the way to the smoke.
Gluten-free as written; heat and meat swaps
Gluten-free: it already is — just check your chili powder blend's label if celiac-level care matters.
Ground turkey works (use 93/7 and add an extra tablespoon of oil for browning) — the spice framework carries it.
Meatless: this one is built on beef. For a vegan chili with the same dump-and-go spirit, the Hydrogen Bomb Chili is the house answer.