I love Chili! There it is out in the world… I love it! First, it is easy to make, filling, low calorie (if vegetarian), you can hide lots of vegetables in it and make chili dogs with the leftovers! This was my plan! If you are making the cornbread, it will take longer than 30 minutes. If you are just having chili – you can get this on the table in 30 minutes, maybe with time to make a salad, especially if you have a kid around who can make the salad or have a bag of it from the grocery store.

Ingredients (in order of usage):

Cornbread – takes 5 active minutes, 1 hr. inactive (including preheating the oven)

1 box cornbread mix (I love the Trader Joe’s brand but be ready for it to be sweet. It has a lot of sugar in it.)

Chili – 30 minutes

1 tsp. olive oil

1 1/3 lbs. ground beef (or leave it out for vegetarians)

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, chopped

3 mini bell peppers, not hot

1 Tbsp. spicy chile powder

2 Tbsp. mild chile powder

1 tsp. cumin

3 tomatoes, chopped (You can used canned tomatoes but my kids do not like them in chili. If you use fresh, they will break up and you cannot tell they are in there. The canned tomatoes do not break up for some reason – salt?)

1 bottle of beer – any kind (I was drinking one too, just to get in the mood! Chili and beer are natural friends!)

3 cans of assorted beans (I had black and pinto but you can used kidney or any combination you like.)

Let’s Cook!

Preheat your oven and make the cornbread. I like to use a cast iron skillet because it makes my cornbread look homemade!

While the cornbread is cooking, make the chili. Warm up a large pan with olive oil. Brown your ground beef while you cut up veggies. Add them to the pan as you finish chopping – onion, garlic, peppers and tomatoes. When beef is cooked, you can drain the extra oil off if desired. Add beer. Add spices. 

Add tomato paste. Add beans after draining and rinsing them. Cook as long as you can stand it before eating it!

You can top the chili with anything you like – cheese, sour cream, chives or green onions, hot peppers. This night was another case of our family eating at different times so everyone had their chili when and how they liked it.

I had mine with extra hot sauce and a dollop of 0% plain Greek yogurt, another cerveza and the Nationals baseball game!