Chilli Con Carne Recipes

We'll start with what I consider to be the ultimate classic Chilli Con carne recipe though I know many will disagree on this. Their classic variations follow below.

Always if you have the time, make this dish 2-3 days before serving as the flavour will mature. Store covered in the refrigerator and heat through on day of serving.

Classic Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients - Serves 4

• 750g-1kg Minced beef - depending on appetites
• 6 Teaspoons Chilli Con Carne Seasoning
• 1 Green or red pepper diced into small pieces 1cm squares
• 2 Jalapeno Chillies cut into thin round slices. Pickled are fine
• 1 Large Onion finely chopped
• Groundnut Oil (or light olive oil)
• 2 Tins Chopped tomatoes - Pureed or left as they are as you prefer
• 100g Tomato Puree
• 2 tins red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 8 Tbsp finely chopped parsley or coriander leaf (optional)
• 2oz Good quality butter
• 1 glass dry red wine
• Water

Cooking method

1. Brown the mince in small batches in a cast iron heavy pan or similar. Keep to one side
2. Cover the base of a casserole style pan with the oil and add the onions and cook on a low heat until they go golden but not brown. This should take about 20 minutes
3. Add the seasoning to the onions and stir in well.
4. Add the mince, red pepper, chillies, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and wine then if needed add enough water to cover the ingredients.
5. Cook on a low simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the kidney beans and stir in well. Simmer for another hour.
7. Taste the meat to ensure it is cooked and soft. If you feel the sauce needs more seasoning add a little more salt or seasoning to taste.
8. Add the butter and melt in. This is optional but will enrich the sauce and give it a lovely sheen
9. Finally add the fresh herbs if using and mix in well. If using parsley this can be chopped in advance as it keeps well but coriander should be chopped at the last minute as it does not keep so well. Reserve a little of the herb for garnishing on the plate
10. Serve with simple plain rice. Garnish with Sour Cream or chopped tomato and herbs. Serve with a hot salsa or chillies for those who like it hotter!

Texas Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients - Serves 4

• 750g-1kg Stewing or Braising steak in bite size pieces
• 6 Teaspoons Chilli Con Carne Seasoning
• 2 Jalapeno Chillies cut into thin round slices. Pickled are fine
• 2-4 Dried Ancho chillies or 8 small dried red chillies
• 1 Large Onion finely chopped
• Groundnut Oil (or light olive oil)
• 1 Pint Beef Stock
• 8 Tbsp finely chopped parsley or coriander leaf (optional)
• 2oz Good quality butter

Cooking method

1. Brown the meat in small batches in a cast iron heavy pan or similar. Keep to one side
2. Cover the base of a casserole style pan with the oil and add the onions and cook on a low heat until they go golden but not brown. This should take about 20 minutes
3. Add the seasoning to the onions and stir in well.
4. Add the meat, chillies, and stock.
5. Cook on a low simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally until the meat is tender and almost melt in the mouth.
6. If you feel the sauce needs more seasoning add a little more salt or seasoning to taste.
7. Add the butter and melt in. This is optional but will enrich the sauce and give it a lovely sheen
8. Finally add the fresh herbs if using and mix in well. If using parsley this can be chopped in advance as it keeps well but coriander should be chopped at the last minute as it does not keep so well. Reserve a little of the herb for garnishing on the plate
9. Serve with simple plain rice.

Tomatoes in Chilli Con Carne?

This is really down to your own preference, as you can see the Texas Chilli has no tomato. The flavour without the tomatoes becomes very much about the meat and the stock flavour that produces in the sauce. Tomatoes will over power the flavour of the stock pushing it into the background. If you like both however and can't decide there is a way you can have that meaty stocky flavour plus tomatoes. The secret is to not let the tomatoes get into the sauce itself. To do this deseed and semi dry some tomatoes as you need. They can be semi dried in an oven at 75 degrees celsius on a baking tray with door just ajar. They take about 2-4 hourse depending on the tomatoes and the oven. By drying them they are less likely to leak tomato juice into your sauce. Add them to your dish just before serving long enough to warm the tomatoes through. If you use very flavoursome tomatoes you will now have little pocket of tomatoey bursts which punctuate the dish but you still have that strong meaty flavour too. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters as roughly bite sized pieces for maximum effect.

Vegetarian Chilli Con (sin) Carne

For a vegetarian chilli I think you should definitely be going the tomato based route and substituting more beans of 1 or 2 extra varieties and whichever vegetables you have to hand which you think might work. Some good ones would be mushrooms, chunks of onions, peppers, courgettes, Carrots, Peas, butternut squash etc. Don't cook the stew too long as the veg will disintegrate and may become bittter. Consider how long they will take to cook and add them at appropriate time intervals putting the longest cook time in first and so on.