Easy Recipe for Chili con Carne

This Recipe for Chili con Carne is an easy recipe that makes a delicious pot of chili for those cold, wet days when you need some comfort food. It’s a meaty, comforting dish using ground meat, onion, bell peppers, beans, and lots of spices.

Tastes SOOO good with a slice of crusty bread. Also awesome served with some tortilla chips or even as a sauce with rice.

Chili con Carne is a Spanish name for a dish that means “Chili with meat” (“con” meaning “with”). So this is definitely a meat dish (sorry vegetarians!). If you’re looking for a vegetarian version, look for a Chili sin Carne recipe. ‘Sin’ = ‘without’ in Spanish (very logical). Anyway, that was your Spanish lesson for the day. 😅. Now on to the recipe.

Ingredients for Chili con Carne

• Ground beef – you can probably use ground pork if you like, but I haven’t tested it with that. Our preferred meat in this household is beef:)
• Onions – regular white onions
• Garlic cloves – I love using my homegrown garlic for my cooking. Fresh is best as it has the most flavor.
• Diced canned tomatoes – makes this a very fast recipe. You can also chop and use fresh tomatoes in a pinch. Sauté them for a bit to soften them.
• Kidney beans – I haven’t tried this with other beans, so not sure if they would work.
• Green bell pepper – Can also use red or yellow pepper. The green gives a nice contrast to a lot of the red color in the chili.
• Chili or Salsa sauce – I use Texicana, a brand available here in Germany, but any salsa should be ok. Here is what’s available on Amazon.
• Water – to thin out the chili a bit. Reduce if you’d like your chili to be thicker.
• Oil (for sautéing) – I use mostly Olive oil, but other vegetable oils should work, as well.
• Canned corn (optional) – gives a nice pop of color to the chili.

Here are the spices and seasonings needed for this chili recipe. There are quite a few of them so here they all are in one place. If possible, don’t omit any of them as they all give the Chili its wonderful taste. I measured them all out on a plate to make it easier to add later, but this is optional.

• Black pepper
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Cumin (whole, but ground is also ok)
• Chili Flakes
• Salt

How to Make Chili con Carne

Ingredients Prep

To make things go faster once you start, do all the chopping needed in advance. Finely chop the onions, chop the peppers, and mince the garlic. Set these aside.

Cooking the Chili

Place the minced meat into a Dutch oven, or a heavy bottomed pan (I like to use my kazan for cooking this dish). Sauté the meat until no longer red, then add the chopped onions. Sauté until they are translucent.

Add minced garlic and chopped peppers and sauté for a few more minutes until the garlic is fragrant and the peppers have softened a bit.

Add the salsa sauce, canned tomatoes (or an equivalent in chopped tomatoes), and the spices and seasonings. Bring everything to a slow simmer.

Add the beans and then water. Mix well together, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve hot.

What to Serve with Chili con Carne

Serve the chili with some sour cream, crusty bread, and tortilla chips or make some white rice and serve the chili with the rice.

How to Store and re-heat Chili con Carne

Store any leftover chili in the fridge for up to 2-3 days. The best way to re-heat the chili is by adding it to a small saucepan and re-heating on the stove. Re-heat only the amount you would eat as meat tends to taste worse if re-heated multiple times. You can also use the microwave for re-heating, if you like.

Other Hearty Recipes to Try

If you’re looking for more comfort dishes, check out some of my other favorites:

• Creamed Zucchini Soup Recipe with Bacon
• Kazakh Beef Plov
• Vegetable Chili (no meat + vegan option)
• Sausage Stew with Broccoli and Barley

Lastly, if you make this Recipe for Chili con Carne, make sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating here! I’d love to hear back from you and will do my best to answer and respond to every comment. And of course, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram if you make this recipe. I’d love to see the photos of the recipes you have made!