Great chili recipes should meet a handful of requirements: They must be relatively forgiving, improve with slow cooking, and be welcoming to your favorite toppings. This easy recipe, which won a 2006 reader poll in honor of our 50th anniversary, meets all of those criteria.
Use canned beans and boxed stock to keep things extra simple, but look for low-sodium versions to keep the saltiness in check. For the meat, go with ground chuck, which is 80% lean ground beef and 20% fat. Other than that, this homemade chili recipe is flexible. Running low on one of the dried herbs? Use more of the others. Like a hint of smoke? Add chipotle chiles or some smoked paprika. Want more heat? Stir in a bit of cayenne pepper.
While many chili recipes call for slow cookers or Instant Pots, we prefer a stovetop. But if you’re serving it for a game day, that’s when any device with a “keep warm” setting comes into play. Make space on the table for a spread of chili toppings like sour cream and cheddar cheese; fresh veggies like diced tomatoes, bell peppers, and green onions; tortilla chips; and hot sauce. For a full weeknight meal, serve it with buttermilk cornbread or sweet potato wedges and a salad.
Ground beef chili not your thing? Find what you’re after with our recipes for ground turkey chili with white beans, stew beef chili with a homemade dried chile purée, or white chicken chili.