This Ground Beef Chili recipe is easy, healthy and spicy. It makes a tasty, hearty and protein-rich meal that is perfect for cold days. Learn how to make the best homemade chili on the stovetop with this quick and simple recipe!
Ground Beef Chili: An Easy Stovetop Meal
There are few things that are more comforting than a hot bowl of chili on a cold day. Made with ground beef, kidney beans, tomato, garlic and lots of spices, this Ground Beef Chili recipe packs tons of flavor in each spoonful. Best of all, this easy one-pot meal will be on your table in about a half an hour.
You can serve the chili alone or with cornbread, rice or tortilla chips. If you’re feeling fancy, serve it topped with shredded cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream and some chopped fresh cilantro.
This chili tastes great (maybe even better!) on the second day, so feel free to prepare it a night in advance and keep it in the fridge before rewarming and serving it the next day. Leftovers can be used a hearty tomato sauce – pour it over a baked potato, pasta, spaghetti squash or nachos. You could also freeze a batch into smaller portions for quick dinners during extra-busy weeknights.
More Spicy Dinner Recipes to Try
Looking for more easy and spicy dinner recipes? Here are some of my favorites on the blog:
- Quick Indian Chicken Curry
- Thai Spicy Noodle Soup
- Cajun Shrimp and Rice
- Coconut Lentil Curry
- Spicy Thai Pumpkin Soup
How to Make Ground Beef Chili
Here is a brief overview of how to make this classic ground beef chili recipe (detailed instructions included in the recipe below):
- Make the flavor base: Sauté the onion and garlic in a hot, oiled pot until softened and fragrant.
- Cook the meat and spices: Add the ground beef to the pot. Once it is cooked through, stir in the chili powder, cumin and oregano.
- Add the rest of the ingredients: Stir in the broth, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Let everything simmer for 20-ish minutes.
- Taste, garnish and serve: Taste the chili and season liberally with salt and pepper. Ladle the chili into bowls, garnish if desired and serve.
That’s it! This is truly a simple one-pot dinner recipe that is absolutely bursting with flavor.
Possible Chili Recipe Variations
There are endless ways to customize this classic chili recipe to your liking, so please have fun and get creative! For example, feel free to…
- Add some heat: To give your chili a spicy kick, feel free to add in some cayenne, hot sauce or a jalapeño pepper. However, if you’re serving this chili to a varied group of eaters, I recommend keeping it on the milder side. Then you can always offer hot sauce if people would like to spice up their individual bowls.
- Add in extra veggies: I kept this base recipe simple, but if you would like to add in some additional vegetables, you have so many options. Anything from bell peppers to carrots, celery, mushrooms, zucchini, corn, kale or sweet potatoes would be delicious. Keep in mind that if you add in more vegetables, you may need to also add in some extra broth/seasonings to compensate.
- Use Italian sausage: You could make this chili with half ground beef and half (hot) Italian sausage, which adds some amazing flavor to this recipe! A mix of beef and chorizo would also work great too.
- Make it smoky: If you would like to add some smoky flavor to your chili, you can add in one or two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
- Add cocoa powder: For a subtle yet rich undertone, try adding a few teaspoons of cocoa powder to your chili. I promise it won’t make the whole batch taste like chocolate, but it definitely rounds out the flavors nicely.
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Where to Get Grass-Fed Beef Online
One of the main ingredients in this recipe is, of course, ground beef. I always prefer to use grass-fed, hormone-free and ethically-raised meat instead of conventional, factory-farmed meat. It’s more healthy, humane, sustainable and just tastes so much better.
It can be difficult to find organic, grass-fed beef, but I found a few amazing online sources. To learn more about my favorite places to get healthy meat, check out this detailed post I wrote: The Best Grass-Fed, Organic Meat Delivery Services Online.
For this Ground Beef Chili recipe, I recommend:
Here are a few kitchen tools I suggest using to ensure this recipe comes out perfect every single time:
- Lodge 6-Quart Dutch Oven – This one is super affordable and the quality is excellent. I love using it to make soups, stews and of course, chili!
- Ultra Chef Express Food Chopper – This is the one I have and it is one of my most-used kitchen tools. I use mine all the time to quickly chop up vegetables. I especially love using it to dice onions, because it saves me from all the tears!
- Ozeri Kitchen and Food Scale – If you buy meat in bulk, a scale makes it so easy to measure the perfect amount of beef to use for this dish. A kitchen scale is also super useful when you need to accurately measure the weight of pasta, vegetables, or flour to use in recipes.
If you make this Ground Beef Chili recipe, let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating ★ below, because I love hearing from you! ♡
The Best Ground Beef Chili (Quick & Easy)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- Optional toppings: Shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 4 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté further for 1 minute.
- Add the ground beef and cook, stirring constantly to break up the meat, for about 5 minutes or until browned.
- Mix in the chili powder, cumin and oregano until well incorporated.
- Stir in the broth, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm, garnished with optional toppings if using.
Notes
- For best results, I highly recommend using grass-fed, organic ground beef from ButcherBox for this recipe.
- The chili can be served on its own or with cornbread, tortilla chips or rice.
- Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days or in the freezer for up to three months.
Nutrition
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This is a perfect recipe for cold winter days! Looks so warm and filling.
Hi Kimberly – Thank you! Yes it’s perfect for the weather right now – I hope you get a chance to make it sometime! 🙂
This cold weather has me all kinds of chili-obsessed! LOVE this recipe- need to try it soon!
Hi Karly! Thank you so much! I know I feel like I crave some type of soup or stew every day now that the weather has cooled down. I hope you do get to try this recipe soon! 🙂
Made this chili the other day. Added green chiles and lots of cheese. It was absolutely great.
Hey Scott! Green chiles + cheese sounds fantastic! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Great, easy recipe. I am vegetarian and instead of the ground beef I used a plant-based “crumble” meat substitute. As per suggested, I added diced green pepper and frozen corn into the mix. Both my husband and I thought this recipe was a keeper! Just enough heat to pique the tastebuds but not overwhelming. Dee-lish!
Hi Hattie, I’m so glad you liked the chili recipe! Thanks for letting me know how you made it, all of those substitutions and additions sound delicious! 🙂