Chili for a Cold Weekend: Beans or No Beans, Settled

I make chili on cold Saturdays because it asks almost nothing of me after the first twenty minutes. Brown the meat, build the base, then let it sit on low while I deal with laundry. And yes, I put beans in mine, though not always, and I will tell you exactly when I leave them out.

Prep time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Total time: about 1 hour 50 minutes. Serves: 6 generously, 8 if you are piling it on rice or cornbread.

Where I land on beans

Beans go in when chili is dinner for a crowd and I want it to stretch. Beans stay out when I want chili as a topping, on hot dogs, on fries, over a baked potato, where loose beans just roll off. That is the whole decision for me. Texas purists will tell you beans are disqualifying, and in a chili cook-off in Texas they are literally right, because the competition rules there exclude them. At my kitchen table, nobody is judging.

If you skip the beans, bump the ground beef from 2 pounds to 2 1/2 and add half a cup more liquid, because the beans were doing some of the thickening. The chili will be richer and will not go as far.

What you will need

• 2 pounds ground beef, 80/20
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, to taste
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth, plus more as needed
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 ounces) pinto or black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to finish
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar or 1 tablespoon masa harina, optional, see the tips
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or the juice of half a lime

Use 80/20 beef, not 93/7. The fat carries the chili powder, and lean beef in a long simmer turns into sandy little pellets. If all you have is lean, add an extra tablespoon of oil and shave twenty minutes off the simmer.

How I make it

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high. Add the beef in two batches, pressing it flat and leaving it alone for 4 to 5 minutes before breaking it up. You want brown crust, not gray crumbles. Transfer each batch to a bowl.
2. Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of fat. Add the onion and bell pepper, a pinch of salt, and cook 6 to 7 minutes until the onion is soft and the bottom of the pot has picked up more brown.
3. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, cinnamon and cayenne and stir constantly for 1 minute. The spices should smell toasted, not sharp. This step is where most of the flavor comes from, so do not skip it.
4. Stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute more, until it darkens from red to brick.
5. Return the beef and any juices to the pot. Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire and the 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Scrape the bottom well to lift everything stuck there.
6. Bring to a bare simmer, then drop the heat to low and partially cover. Cook 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes so the bottom does not scorch.
7. Add the beans and simmer uncovered another 25 to 30 minutes, until the chili mounds slightly on a spoon instead of running off it.
8. Off the heat, stir in the vinegar or lime juice. Taste and add salt. Keep tasting and adding salt in small pinches until the chili stops tasting flat. That usually takes more than you expect.

If your chili tastes harsh or thin after an hour, it probably needs more time rather than more spice. Spices smooth out with heat. Adding another spoon of chili powder to a young chili usually just makes it dusty.

Fixing the three things that go wrong

Too thin. Simmer uncovered longer, which is always the best fix. If you are out of time, whisk 1 tablespoon masa harina into 1/4 cup of the hot liquid, stir it back in and simmer 10 minutes. Cornmeal works in a pinch. Cornstarch slurry works too but gives it a glossy, gravy-like texture I do not love in chili.

Too flat is almost always salt and acid, in that order. Add salt a pinch at a time, then the vinegar or lime. The acid is what makes the tomato taste bright instead of tinny.

Too spicy. Stir in a tablespoon of brown sugar and serve it with sour cream and shredded cheese, which do more than any pot adjustment. A handful of extra beans or a can of drained diced tomatoes dilutes the heat without watering it down.

Slow cooker and stovetop timing

You still brown the beef and bloom the spices in a skillet first. There is no version of chili where dumping raw ground beef into a slow cooker tastes good. Transfer everything except the beans to the slow cooker, cook on low 6 to 7 hours or high 3 to 4, then stir in the beans for the last 30 minutes. Slow cooker chili comes out looser because nothing evaporates, so cut the broth to 1 cup and be ready to thicken at the end.

If you have a pressure cooker, brown and bloom on saute, then cook at high pressure 15 minutes with a 10 minute natural release. Add the beans after and simmer on saute to thicken. It is good. It is not quite as good as the slow version, and I only do it on weeknights.

Toppings and what to serve with it

Sharp cheddar, sour cream, sliced scallions, pickled jalapenos. Cornbread on the side, or over rice if I am feeding more people than I planned on. Crushed saltines on top is not sophisticated and I do it constantly.

Storage and reheating

Chili keeps 4 days in the refrigerator in a covered container, and it genuinely tastes better on day two once the spices settle. Cool it to room temperature within two hours of cooking, then refrigerate. Do not leave the pot on the stove overnight.

Reheat gently on the stove over medium-low with a splash of broth or water, stirring, about 10 minutes. In the microwave, cover loosely and heat in 1 minute bursts, stirring between, until it is steaming hot all the way through, 165°F (74°C).

It freezes well for 3 months. Freeze it in flat zip-top bags laid down on a sheet pan, because flat bags thaw in about an hour under cool running water and a round container takes most of a day in the fridge. If you plan to freeze it, hold the beans back and add them when you reheat. Frozen and thawed beans get mealy, and that is the one texture problem you cannot simmer your way out of.