Chilli Con Carne

Chilli has got to be one of my favourite meals of all time. It's just great comfort food, and with the days getting shorter, the evenings getting darker and the air getting much, MUCH colder, it's time to turn up the heat and brighten up your winter.

This meal is jam packed full of veggies too, so not only is it delicious, but actually pretty good for you, too!

Once again this is a meal that can last and last. Any leftovers can be spooned into a freezer bag once cooled and stored for a while. To be honest, next-day-chilli is even better than one made at the time!

The flavours just soak in and are amplified when it's cooled and reheated, it's wonderful, and great to come home to after a hard day's work.


For this recipe, we'll need:

500g minced beef
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tins of kidney beans
1 tin of sweetcorn
2 peppers (green/red)
2 red onions
2-3 chillies (depends how hot you want it)
Chilli powder
Paprika
Dark chocolate
Worcester sauce
Red wine
Cheese
2 beef stock cubes
Salt
Pepper
Tortilla chips

Start by chopping up the onions into slices like I've done below. 

Next we'll need to chop up the peppers. I've hollowed out the red pepper, this'll make it really easy to slice. I'll show you how to do this with the green one. 

First of all, be extremely careful where you cut, the last thing you want to do is slice your hand open, you'll get blood in the chilli and ruin the meal!

Cut into the top of the pepper, cutting right the way around the stem in the middle. Do your best to come back to the first point you cut into. 

Give this a wiggle, and gently pull the stem and you'll get the pepper's core out.

Use your knife to remove the remaining seeds and the white fleshy parts of the pepper, until you're left with just the crunchy, fresh, vibrant green flesh. I love cutting peppers, there's something really enjoyable about it. They're brilliantly colourful, and work fantastically in dishes like this.

I'm going to put the peppers to one side for the moment, as it's time to start cooking the onions. Throw these into your trusty stock pot (pretty much every meal I do relies on this pot!) and fry them off with a little oil until they're golden. Keep the pan on a mid-high heat at this point.

As these are browning, we'll cut the peppers. Cut your pepper into quarters, then each segment into four slices.

Line the slices up as I have done in the picture above, and then cut cleanly down the middle. Do the same for the green pepper. 

Add the minced beef to the stock pot, and let this cook through until the beef has browned. Stir this occasionally while it's cooking.

Slice the chillies up, and remove the seeds. If you want a real kick you can leave them in, but I keep them out. I prefer flavour over heat.

Tumble everything off the chopping board into the beef and onions, and reduce to a medium heat. 

Give this a quick mix with a wooden spoon, and add the chopped tomatoes.

After emptying each tin, pour in a small amount of water, swirl around and pour into the pot. This is to ensure we don't waste any flavour from the bottom of the tin.

Give this a good mix again, and bring it all together. 

Add some Worcestershire sauce, don't be sparing with it either. A good glug of this will do wonders to the flavour.

Next, you'll need some beef stock cubes. Traditionally I've always used the standard dry Oxo-style cubes, but you can use anything that you like, so if you've got those new-fangled stock pot things, you could go for those too.

Add the beef stock, followed by the chilli powder and paprika. Season it with these to how you would like it to taste, but keep this warning in mind. You can always add spices, but you can't take them away. 

My advice is to add a base flavour, and then add upon it in a little while. The tasting stage comes just before we let it simmer. I'll come back to that part though.

Grab a colander and strain the two tins of kidney beans. They'll be stored in a dark, muddy water, and it's not very appealing. rinse these under a cold tap until the water coming from underneath the colander is running clear.

Add the kidney beans to the stock pot, followed by a whole tin of sweetcorn.

What we've got now is chilli con carne, with a slight twist as it's also packed with stuff that's good for you. The veg adds a lot of texture and crunch to the meal, as well as bulking it out so you can stretch it further. Great tip for students here, as you can do this with pretty much anything mince based.

So we've got a basic chilli here, now I'm going to do a few things to it that make it mine. All of which are inspired by other recipes I've seen in the past, and tricks taught by my lovely mother. In fact, I need to thank her for this, I've watched her do this meal over and over again growing up, and it's one that I can make off by heart, along with her family favourite Lasagne.

Look at that, I'm going off track again! I'm pretty good at that. Anyway!! I'm going to add something to thicken this up, it'll give it a silky texture, and give it more body.

Cornflour is a clever ingredient, it's used for thickening sauces and gravy, batters, and doing all kinds of crazy s**t. You'll see what I mean, keep an eye out for a video.

Take two teaspoonfuls of cornflour, add to a mug and fill with water. Give this a good mix, and make sure there aren't any lumps.

When you've got a smooth cornflour solution (it won't seem thick at all, but trust me on this one), gently pour and stir into the chilli.

Let this simmer for about five minutes or so, and in the mean time, check out this mental video! I don't know why it does this, but cornflour behaves in a very strange way when combined with an equal amount of water.

Mad stuff! So we've let the chilli simmer, I'm now going to add a glug of red wine. This will give it a slightly fruity flavour, it's not overpowering, but once it's bubbled away in the simmering process, it'll be a delicious undertone you'll be glad you added.

Normally you'd add a sprinkling of sugar to balance out the sharpness of the tomatoes. Rather than sugar, I'm using dark chocolate. You don't need a lot, but you'll end up with a silky texture with an undertone of sweetness. I learned from a recipe I looked over a few years ago that this is a technique the Mexicans use in their dishes to add sweetness.

Let this chocolate melt away and stir it in gently. At this stage, it's time to taste what you've got. Have a think about what it needs and add accordingly. You've got the option of salt, pepper, paprika and chilli powder. Add whatever you like, and if you think anything else might work, by all means comment below!

Let this simmer for 15 minutes with the lid off. When you return to it, the chilli will be thicker, full of flavour, and amazing.

At this stage we're ready to serve up! My favourite way to eat chilli is to spoon over a bowl of crunchy salted tortilla chips, layered with cheese, and topped with soured cream.

If that sounds just perfect, go nuts!

There you have it. Hands down one of my favourite meals, especially for the miserable winter weather. Best enjoyed with wonderful company, and either a glass of the red wine you used earlier, or with an ice cold beer.