This chili recipe has been a huge hit since we first shared it. We've been blown away by all the positive feedback and love hearing about your chili cook-off wins!
Hi, this is Lisa's husband Eddie, guest blogging my award winning chili recipe based on popular demand (mostly from my wife).
I'll never forget the first chili cook-off I ever attended. It was an office event and it hadn't even occurred to me to submit my own entry. There were about a dozen chilis to choose from ranging from incredible to inedible (the latter being heat related - it was called "The Five Alarmer" and it passed its time at the cook-off largely undisturbed).
The ultimate winner, whose chili I had voted for, was a young woman just starting her career. I was an executive at the time, which I mention only to emphasize how awkward it was when I asked her if she would share her recipe with me and she just looked at me and shook her head.
I suddenly understood the competitiveness involved in these things - there would be another chili cook-off at some point and she wasn't giving away any secrets. Thus began my personal quest to win a chili contest!
Quest for the best chili
I tried a number of different approaches in the following years, including a purist Texas style chili that shunned beans and ground beef in favor of unadorned hunks of stew meat simmered in what I thought was an excellent balance of chiles and spices. “Delicious”, someone told me after I placed third, “but it’s not really chili”.
The award winning chili had beans in it. And I had to admit it was much better than mine, in part because it had three different kinds of meat in it, including sausage.
Determined to come up with an award winning chili recipe, I narrowed my sights to multiple-meat chilis and came upon Guy Fieri’s Dragon Breath chili, which is the recipe I’m adapting here.
Award Winning Chili Recipe
This chili contains chuck meat, Italian pork sausage and ground beef plus three different kinds of peppers (poblano, Anaheim and jalapeño) which results in excellent flavor, texture and heat.
And my version has a little something extra! Fieri‘s recipe calls for either bacon grease or canola oil to sauté the aromatics. Easy choice I thought, but it’s not as if you can buy bacon grease so I got a 12-oz package of bacon, cut it into small pieces and rendered the fat myself. It produced just about the right amount of fat, but also an interesting byproduct. As I looked at those cooked bits of bacon I thought “who am I kidding? Those are going into my chili!”
Also Lisa advised that I use three different kinds of chili powder to add a depth of flavor to match up against the three (now four actually) kinds of meat and three types of chili pepper. Finally, my taste in beer steered me toward an IPA rather than the lager suggested by the original recipe.
Aside from those differences and the fact that I brown the meat separately instead of in with the sautéed vegetables, the credit goes to Fieri for an amazing recipe, especially his use of spices which generates a level of heat that is just on the edge, which in my view is where a chili should be.
My chili won two cook-offs outright including one against Dean's award winning white chicken chili.
It also took best meat chili in a third competition (lost to a vegetarian in the all-around that year) and came in a very close second to Dean’s white chicken chili in another cook-off that was heartbreaking for me.
Against a field of roughly 20 chilis and with hundreds of votes tallied, Dean and I were counted up exactly even to tie for the win and the medal was awarded jointly to us.
In what has since become known as Chili-gate, I later that day discovered that unlike the previous competition, the cooks were not allowed to vote. I conceded that I had in fact voted and presented sole ownership of the blue ribbon to Dean. I kidded him that my vote was for his chili (it wasn’t).
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Here's how to make Eddie's Award Winning Chili:
This chili takes time to prepare and involves numerous ingredients, but it's totally worth it and the basics are straightforward.
Start by roasting, peeling, seeding and chopping the chiles. Keep a close eye on them while they are roasting - things can escalate quickly.
Peel off the skin. Use a small knife to scrape the seeds out. Then dice the flesh.
In the meantime, while the chilies are in the oven, cut up and fry down the bacon to provide the grease to use for sautéing (and the bacon itself!). You then sauté the chiles and vegetables in the bacon fat, remove them and brown the meat in the same pot.
Then add the spices, the tomato sauce and paste, chicken broth and beer and simmer for two hours.
Lisa asked me to advise you that if you want to be a little healthier you can skim the fat off the surface periodically which, in my opinion, for this dish is sort of like saying that if you want to be a little safer when you go cliff diving, wear knee pads. But anyway consider it mentioned.
No skimming was involved when I took first place in the cook-offs. And if you really want a healthy chili option, try this vegetarian chili or this Turkey Chili.
I also want to say that it is great to have a sous chef alongside when you prepare this chili, preferably Lisa.
One final note: for my taste the heat level is perfect, but if you want to tone it down, the best way is by reducing the amount of cayenne pepper.
Some of your questions answered
Over the years, we have gotten lots of questions from our readers, in the comments. Here are the answers to a few of the most frequently asked questions:
If the concern is alcohol, you can use a non-alcoholic beer. There are even non-alcoholic IPAs. If the concern is gluten, you can use a gluten-free beer. Whatever the reason is, if you don't want to use beer at all, you can substitute an equal amount of chicken stock.
We have had this issue and have doubled up on the poblano peppers, with great success!
Yes absolutely. Just make sure you turn the crockpot on high heat for a bit to be sure the chili gets up to temp. Then, once it's hot you can put it on the "warm" setting.
Cut the cayenne in half or eliminate it completely. Cayenne doesn't add much in the way of flavor but it does add a substantial amount of heat. Also, be sure to remove all the seeds and white pith from the jalapeños. For an even milder chili, stick to a mild chili powder, such as ancho or Mexican Guajillo Chili Powder.
Here's my award winning chili recipe. If you make this please come back to leave a comment and let me know what you think.
PrintRecipe
Eddie's Award Winning Chili
- Total Time: 3 hours 45 mins
- Yield: 10-12 servings 1x
Description
A fantastic award winning chili con carne with a robust meaty flavor, the perfect amount of heat, beef, pork, beans, fresh chile peppers, awesome spices, onions, garlic, tomatoes and beer.
Ingredients
- 3 Anaheim chiles, roasted, peeled, chopped
- 3 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, chopped
- 12 ounces of bacon, cut crosswise into ¼-inch strips and sautéed until almost crisp. Reserve 3 tablespoons of bacon fat.
- 3 tablespoons bacon fat (rendered from the bacon)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (canola, grape seed or your favorite)
- 2 red bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed, diced
- 2 jalapeño peppers, seeds and ribs removed, minced
- 2 yellow onions, peeled and diced
- 1 head garlic, peeled and minced (10-12 garlic cloves, 6 tablespoons minced garlic)
- 1 pound boneless beef chuck, trimmed of fat and gristle, cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
- 3 tablespoons chili powder (Try using 3 different chili powders for great depth of flavor - I use ancho, chipotle and Mexican)
- 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (Half this amount for less heat)
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- 2 teaspoons granulated onion
- 2 teaspoons hot paprika (not smoked)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups tomato sauce (passata, not ketchup for those in the UK)
- 8 ounces tomato paste
- 12 ounces of your favorite beer (I use an IPA because I like the hoppy flavor)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 15-ounce cans kidney beans, with juice
- 2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, with juice
Optional Garnishes:
- 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced or 1 red onion, finely chopped
- Shredded cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack
- Sour cream
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Instructions
- To Roast the Chilies, Preheat the oven to broil (500ºF) Set an oven rack at the top, directly under the broiler. Spread the chiles out on a low-sided oven tray and roast for 15-20 minutes, turning peppers with tongs every five minutes, until their skins are about 60-70% blackened on all sides. Put the hot peppers directly into a paper bag. Roll down the top of the bag so they're tightly contained. Let them sit and steam for 15-20 minutes until the skins are loosened and easy to peel off. Peel off skins, remove seeds and membranes, and chop.
- To Sauté Chilis and Aromatics, add the bacon grease and oil to a large heavy pot or Dutch oven (6-quart), over medium-high heat. Add the chopped chiles, red bell peppers, jalapeño peppers and onions. Cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables just start to become translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Transfer all the sautéed vegetables to a bowl and set aside. No need to wash the pot, you'll use it to brown the meat.
- To Brown the Meats, add the cubed beef chuck to the pot and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned on all sides, about 4 minutes. Add the ground beef and sausage and cook for 7-10 minutes, stirring to break up the sausage and ground beef, until the meat is no longer pink. Return the cooked vegetables to the pot along with the reserved bacon.
- Add Spices: chili powders, cayenne, coriander, cumin, granulated garlic, granulated onion, paprika, salt and black pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Add the Rest of the Ingredients: Add the tomato sauce and paste. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, to combine. Add beer, chicken stock, kidney beans with their liquid and pinto beans with their liquid. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook for 2 hours, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
- To Serve, ladle chili into bowls. Top with garnishes or put garnishes into small bowls for self serve.
Notes
Should you drain and rinse the beans? In my experience draining and rinsing the beans is not required. If you're someone who feels otherwise, by all means drain and rinse - the outcome will still be terrific!
- Prep Time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: simmer
- Cuisine: Tex-Mex
This recipe post was first published on October 23, 2017. It has been updated with new photos to show the cooking steps, a video so you can watch how to make it, and an added FAQ section that answer some of the most frequently asked questions from our followers. We haven't touched the recipe because, by all accounts, it's great just the way it is!
Holly
Just noticed that the recipe for 2X didn't change the amount of garlic re tablespoons. Should be 12? (2 head garlic, peeled and minced (20-24 garlic cloves, 6 tablespoons minced garlic). Just thought you might want to know. Making grocery list now for the Saturday cooking marathon. I'm feeding a family of 8 for a friend and hoping 1X will be plenty, as it says up to 12 servings. I may do 1.5X. What are your thoughts? Thank you for the recipe.
Eddie
Hi Holly,
Thanks for your comment - you are absolutely right, the "widget" that does the calculations is not capturing the number of tablespoons. We will make that adjustment on the site so as not to confuse others. You will be absolutely fine serving eight people with the recipe as it is - no need for 1.5X-ing unless you want to save some leftovers for a future meal. This dish freezes very well. Please come back and let me know how things go!
PS - what a good friend you are!
Pops
This is definitely one of my favorite chili recipes and I will use it again!
Eddie
Great to hear Pops! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a comment and a five star rating!
Melissa
Could this be done in an instant pot?
Eddie
Hi Melissa,
I have never tried using an instant pot, but I spent a little time researching this and it looks like it would be possible. Have a look at youtube where there are a number of videos that can be helpful. Essentially, you are sautéing the vegetables and meat in bacon fat, which can be done in the pot, then adding spices, then the rest of the ingredients and pressure cooking. The one thing I wouldn't shortcut is roasting your own chilies, which does take a bit of time but it's worth it. If you do decide to try this approach, I would love to hear how it turns out.
Mike
Unbelievable Chili! The flavors from the peppers really shine through and the variety of meats/spices add a ton of depth. This was a huge hit for everyone who tried before it ran out!
Eddie
Hi Mike - thanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave a star rating and a comment. I am so glad you and your crew enjoyed this recipe so much. Sounds like you might need to double it up next time!
Gretchen
I won our local chili cook off last night. There were 11 entrants and I won by a landslide. I did add a few of my own secret ingredients but this recipe is awesome!!
Eddie
Hi Gretchen - I am so happy to hear you took the blue ribbon in your chili cook off, and by a landslide to boot! I really appreciate your coming back to let me know. We are almost up to 100 winners who have reported back here. Keep those final ingredients secret - you never know, you might be up against this exact chili (it has happened before), and this way you have a little something extra.
Jens
Hi Eddie,
I am really interested in cooking your chili but some ingredients are hard to get in Germany (if you don't live next to Berlin or Hamburg or any other bigger city).
Anaheim and Poblanos - don't know where to get them...
And what is "Sweet italian sausage"? Is that a Salsiccia? Or Salami?
Besides the rest of the description might be a challange but looks doable so far.
Can you provide me some help on the chilis and the sausage?
Thanks a lot!
Eddie
Hi Jens,
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the pepper types that exist in Germany, but I was able to find this site that might be helpful: https://pfefferhaus.de/de/chili-70/. They seem to carry some of the Mexican varieties. Other than the jalapenos, I would avoid any with extreme heat. As for the sausage, you are most definitely looking for salsiccia, NOT salami. I hope this is helpful and if you are able to pull it off, I would love to know how your chili comes out.
Caitlyn
I have won a chili contest with this chili, although it was a small workplace contest. However, I am so confident in this chili that I often boast at my new workplace that I've got the best chili. I think I added some cocoa powder back in the day, but I'm not sure there was much of a difference. A lot of times I will half this recipe and just make it for my little family of two, it's sooo good. Thank you for this! 🙂
John Williams
hey Eddie, I like your chili recipe. Question, I need 3 gals for this cook-off I am entering will the 3x's recipe be enough? if not can you tell me what I need to make 3 gals, please?
Regards,
Johnny
Eddie
Hi John - this recipe makes about six quarts, so doubling should get you to roughly three gallons. Good luck and let me know how you do!
Debbie Holden
Hi Eddie, this sure looks like a winning recipe I can't wait to make it. However I can't find Anaheim chile peppers here in SC. Are they instrumental to the flavor profile or may I substitute something else to replace them? Thank you Eddie!
Eddie
Hi Debbie - not to worry! I have had that same issue from time to time. Just double up on the poblanos and you will be fine. Good luck!
Barbara Owen
Lisa, send your husband over here to Prestwich, on the outskirts of the famous Manchester, home of Manchester United. I live in the leafy suburb of Prestwich, we have 800 hectares of parkland, paradise for us that have dogs (and the dogs obviously) We have a few little bistros on our village and they all via for our custom, all can make a decent chilli, but I've passed this chilli recipe on to a close friend of mine who owns one of the bistros. There's chilli and chilli, then there's Eddie's chilli - no contest. Supurb, supurb, supurb. Next cook off is at the back end of January. I love a lot of your recipes Lisa, share them with my dog walking friends, just don't stop. P. S. I'll be honest and say that I've passed some of yours off as my own, sorry. Barbara
Eddie
Hi Barbara - well, thanks for the invite! Lisa and I lived in London for a while recently and we certainly would have taken you up on that offer back then. Prestwich sounds magical. We have an 85 lb goldendoodle who I can imagine running around in that parkland area. If your bistro owning friend ever puts Eddie's Award Winning Chili on their menu, I would appreciate a picture! Best of luck with the January cook-off. And thanks for sharing the word on Panning the Globe!
Todd
Hi Eddie. This recioe looks so delicious! I want to make it for our office pot luck. May I ask which exact brand of beer you use so I can make it exactly true to your recipe? Thanks so much!
Eddie
Hi Todd,
Thanks for your question and your anticipatory five star rating - I believe you will be pleased with the result! Really any IPA is likely to work (and I have used quite a few), but when I first started making this dish I used Harpoon, so let's go with that.
warren
Eddie,
I am going to try your recipe this weeked for the first time, can't wait. I typically cook my chili for quite a bit longer. Would cooking the chili (minus the beans of course) for substantially longer hurt anything? I didn't know if it might dissolve the roasted peppers or something.
Eddie
Hi Warren - I hope it works out for you. What I might suggest vs cooking the chili for longer is to do it a day or two before you serve it. It takes hours just to cool off to the point of putting it in the fridge and then you have time sitting where the ingredients and flavors meld even further with each other. The specific answer to your question is that I might be concerned about too much of the liquid steaming off if you are talking about, for example, doubling the time on the stove.
Karli Siscoe
Such great flavor! This is my go to recipe for Texas chili(even though it has beans)
Erin
I made this chili last week! And I th ink I left a comment then, but we finished it up in Chili omelettes today and everyone asked when could I make it again❤️
Lisa
Hi Erin - the more comments the better - I love hearing all the details. Chili omelettes! What a great way to finish up the last of the chili. So glad you all enjoyed 🙂
Christine Brandt
Prepared this recipe as written. (Well, I DID cut the Cayenne back to 1-1/2 tap). But otherwise I did not change a thing…. And took first place in my first Chili cook-off. This recipe was a slam dunk and I won by a landslide.
Eddie
Hey Christine - what great news! So glad this recipe helped you take home the blue ribbon. Thanks so much for coming back to let me know and thanks for the five star rating. You made my day!
Denise Wheeler
Hi Eddie,
I’m trying out this recipe for company chili contest next week. Quick question….do I add the bacon to pit of chili or am I cooking the bacon for the grease only?
Eddie
Hi Denise - my recipe calls for you to add the bacon bits into the pot at the end of step 3. I find they add both texture and flavor to this chili. Good luck in the contest!
Becky
I have an alcoholic in my family and I was wondering if the alcohol is rendered out? Or should I just skip the beer. I will be making this chili this weekend for our churches chili cook off. I will let you know how it goes.
Eddie
Hi Becky,
In researching this a little bit, I cannot say with certainty that all the alcohol will be eliminated (though I can say there is neither any flavor of alcohol nor is there any potency to what remains given the cooking process and the relatively tiny amount it starts with). So if this is about the principle of having the dish be alcohol free in every sense, I would either use a non alcoholic beer (there are several good ones out there including IPAs) or skip the beer and replace it with more chicken stock or with beef stock at the same quantity.