Rich and hearty homemade Beef Chili Recipe loaded with vegetables and beans is comfort food at its greatest! This (under 30-minute) chili recipe is going to become your go-to recipe for cooler weather.
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Beef Chili Recipe
Ground meat and beans are the basis for a classic chili recipe. You can elevate the flavors of a traditional chili by adding vegetables so for this beef chili recipe, we added carrots and green peppers.
Make this your own by adding other diced vegetables you have on hand. These can include celery, mushrooms, zucchini or red peppers and can be added with the carrots and peppers.
How to Make the Best Beef Chili?
- Brown ground meat, add diced onion and cook until onion is softened.
- Add carrots, green pepper and garlic. Cook until veggies are tender.
- Add diced tomatoes (with juice), broth, beans and ingredients for chili seasoning. Stir well. Simmer 15 min until vegetables and beans are tender.
- Turn off the heat and allow the chili to rest 5 minutes before serving.
TIP: If you don’t like chunky diced tomatoes, then finely cube or puree them before adding to the chili.
Can Beef Chili be Frozen?
Yes, chili may be frozen. Cool chili completely and store in an air-tight container up to 3 months. Thaw and reheat to enjoy!
Since reheated chili tastes just as good as fresh, Chili may also be refrigerated and enjoyed for several days.
Chili Toppings:
This chili is a mild chili with the indicated seasonings, if you want a spicier chili, add more chili powder to taste. 🙂
Serve the beef chili with your favorite toppings of sour cream, cheddar cheese, crushed tortilla chips, fresh cilantro or green onion.
Be adventurous and serve the hearty chili over a halved and pitted avocado or baked potato! So good and original.
More Cozy Cold Weather Recipes to Try:
- Slow Cooker Turkey Chili Recipe – a crowd-pleasing chili
- Potato Chicken Soup Recipe – so comforting
- Instant Pot White Chicken Chili – super fast and easy
- Creamy Tomato Basil Soup – comfort in a bowl
Beef Chili Recipe
Ingredients
Beef Chili Ingredients:
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 medium onion, finely cubed
- 1 large carrot, cubed
- ½ medium green bell pepper, cubed
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 15.5 oz can kidney beans, , drained and rinsed
- 3 cups beef broth
Chili Seasonings:
- 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- 2 ½ tsp chili powder
Instructions
- Brown beef in a Dutch oven over med-high heat, breaking up the meat while stirring.
- Add onion and cook until tender.
- Add diced carrot, bell pepper and minced garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender, stirring as needed. Drain excess fat.
- Pour in diced tomatoes with juice, add beans, broth and seasonings. Stir well to combine.
- Turn heat down to a gentle boil and allow chili to cook 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally (longer if meat and vegetables aren’t desired tenderness).
- Taste chili and additional seasonings if needed. Turn off heat and allow chili to rest 5 minutes.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Curling up with a bowl of hot chili in the winter is a real treat. What is YOUR favorite cold-weather comfort food?
Hi! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, food photographer, and writer. Here you’ll find delicious, reliable recipes made with simple ingredients, plus easy step-by-step photos and videos to help you cook confidently at home. 
This is almost the same recipe I’ve used for 40 years! I never thought to add carrot, but the green pepper is a MUST! Is there a reason why you have to drain and rinse the beans? I never have and everyone loves my chili!
Draining removes excess salt, starch and sometimes a metallic flavor. Thanks for sharing!
Loved it, thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Maria!
I make lost Chili, have tried many recipes. I am going to try this one for Halloween. Is it necessary to add green peppers? I like them but dont like me.
Hi Melody, the green peppers add great flavor; some of our readers substituted them with jalapeños also.
Can this recipe be made without beans? Personally, I love them. My wife, not so much. Lol! I’ve used many of your recipes to make amazing dinners for my family. Your videos and recipes are easy to follow and the end results are always delicious. Thanks in advance and keep up the good work!
Hi Scott, thanks for your good comments and feedback. I’m not sure how it would turn out without beans as I’ve always made this recipe this way. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes!
I liked it a lot. It was pretty but was missing tomato sauce and that’s a flavor I am used to. Other than that it was very good.
There are a lot of ways that you can cook up chili and find out what is the best canned chili for chili dogs, so go ahead and have a look around online and find some recipes that you like, and that you can make. and enjoy.
I hope you love our chili recipe, Lala!
Hi! love this recipe! Tonight I am making it with Impossible Beef (nonmeat beef) it looks good, can’t wait to taste it!
Sounds like a good plan, Jen. I hope you love it!
We learnt yesterday this storm would be coming our way and I decided to cook. It helped to release the stress. I made this beef chili really late at night.
My husband is eating it right now. I can tell he is happy. The storm is not too bad as of right now. Thanks, Natasha.
I’m glad it was a mild storm, and you’re all safe! Thank you for sharing this comment with me, Nataliya! Glad you all enjoyed this chili.
Hi Natasha, this chili
reminds me of my dad’s chili, minus the carrots. He made it often during the winter. Time to make it again !!
Nancy🇨🇦
So great to hear that, Nancy! I hope this becomes your new favorite.
I love you recipes I’m a widow so therefore I like to mix things up in small bulk so I can freeze for little meals Maybe three meals for three days I hope you understand what I’m saying your recipes are great for someone like me cuz I like to try different things that other people have made thank you very much I enjoy your food I’ve gone by your recipes taking out and adding just a little bit
You’re welcome! I hope you’ll love every recipe that you will try.
Hi Natasha, my sister and I made this recipe today. It was really good! We actually substituted a lot of your ingredients. The carrots we didn’t have, so we substituted with butter nut squash. We added an 8 oz can tomato sauce for extra flavor. We also used chicken peas, in place of the kidney beans. We also used ground chicken instead of ground beef. We used chicken broth instead of beef broth. But overall, it was a delicious recipe. Thank you for the recipe Natasha 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
This space is designed to rate the current recipe! It is not designed to share one that you have created. Set up your own blog!!!
This was amazingly delicious! I love all your recipes. I paired this chili with some cornbread, cheddar cheese, and sour cream, of course.
Sounds wonderful! Thanks for your perfect review and rating, Darina. Love it!
Hi Natasha ! I love all your recipes ! I’m going to try this tonight , however I’m not a big fan of kidney beans , would pinto work fine ?
Hi Jennifer, Pinto beans will work great!
Loved this chili recipe! Added one diced jalapeño and one 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. The family loved it!
Yay, so glad to hear that! Thank you for sharing, Lisa.
Love this chili. I added a touch of tomato paste, and let it simmer with lid off to steam off some liquid. My compliments on this recipe, liked it so much that I made a couple of gallons and put in freezer bags to pull out on one of those winter nights.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
The chili was a big hit. It’s delicious and simple to make. I only had frozen carrots so I defrosted them and added them at the end, I also added red pepper flakes to spice it up.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hello Natasha,
Your recipes are too delicious, but terribly dangerous with this confinement back in France, I will take another 2 to 3 kg
See you soon
Sincerely
Agnes
I’m glad you’re enjoying my recipes!
I just finished making this recioe but found it to be very bland. While it was still in the pot, I made the following adjustments:
•increased the diced tomatoes to 28 oz
•5.5 oz can tomato paste
•1 can Bush’s original beans
•1 diced jalepeno pepper
•2 tbsp brown sugar
•2 tsp smoked paprika
•1 tbsp oregano
After the adjustments it was delicious.
Hi Beth, I don’t recall any reports of this being bland. It’s normally pretty flavorful. Just one thing to note, if you added more tomatoes to the original chili or swapped out any ingredients, it may need more seasoning.
this is a great simple recipe also flavor ,,,when ya start to change ingredients you should not comment, comment on your own you just created Beth !Keep up the great work CHEF Natasha you are one dedicated Person . “Good Eating”
It looks like you wanted this chili to be sweet with the addition of the Bush’s beans and the brown sugar. That is called Cowboy beans not Chili.
Made your chili yesterday and the family loved it!!!! Going to have to double the recipe next time. Forgot to get a green bell pepper so used a Jalapeno instead that I had
That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing this great review with us, Lyndsee!
I’m making beef chili and it looks a little thin how can I make thicker? But it taste great
Hi Eileen, I would add a little less broth or simmer uncovered for longer to thicken it up.
I don’t really like beans any suggestions for an alternative to red kidney beans?
Hi Loraine, unfortunately, I have not tried anything else aside from beans. Maybe someone else can share in here if they tried any substitute?
I used to smash the beans for the flavor because my children wouldn’t eat them. Also I would dice raw potato and add that to the chili and it thickened up.
Beans Substitute, hope this helps.
https://substitutecooking.com/10-best-substitute-for-beans-in-chili/
Try some corn
Just made your beef chili . Delicious! I like the beef broth and tomatoes instead of tomato sauce so it is lighter tasting and so flavorful! It’s cold and rainy today so it will be perfect tonight! I have now made about 20 of your recipes! Your my go to for cooking!
That’s just awesome JoAnne! I’m so glad you’re enjoying this recipe!