How to Make the Absolute Best Ground Beef Chili

[Music] ground beef chili is the Rodney Dangerfield of the chili room haha it's no respect no respect Wow for most people ground beef chili is a little more than various cans of this and that seasoned up with some stale old chili powder there's not much chili love going on there mm-hmm but for this chili we tore the recipe a part of the scenes and uncovered something new job it's gonna rock your chili world and believe it or not starts with the chili that's you well this is a real chili this is a hand show chili which is a dried poblano chili and this makes all the difference when you make a chili if you make your own chili powder it's very easy it just takes the chili to the next level so wheat when you buy dried chilies you want to look for ones that are bendable like this if their rates stale and dry and they snap apart it's old and you don't want that they don't have enough flavor when they're old okay so she prepped dried chilies if you just want to tear them apart and get rid of that woody stem and any seeds that are inside they usually just kind of shake out there we go few seeds are okay but most of the seeds just fall right out and then for the rest of the chili we're gonna walk over to this pot and we're just gonna turn it up into pieces that are about inch inch and a half in size and in here I already have some others so this is a total of six ancho chilies and now we're gonna toast them over medium-high heat we're gonna toast them for four to six minutes so you start to smell them and at no point to this pot be smoked in so if you see it smoking pull it off the heat and save those chilies all right I'm leaving you in charge I'm on chili alerts you are all right so now on to the main ingredient in our chili it's beef and here we have two pounds of ground beef and this is 85% lean and that's crucial for chili because you want that extra fat to help flavor the chili and keep the meat moist as it cooks and 85% lean is often called ground chuck that's right and so to help this meat really maintain its moisture as it simmers we're gonna add some special ingredients we're gonna add a little water two tablespoons of water a little salt this is a teaspoon and a half of salt the hair is the special guy this is baking soda and this is three-quarters of a teaspoon of baking soda so that baking soda does two key things one it helps that meat hold on to moisture so that it stays good and juicy during the simmering time and two it helps the meat brown work quickly we often think of baking soda being added to things like cookie dough to help it brown faster but as Julie you mentioned we added to me we also use it on roast chicken helps that skin brown quickly and even stir-fry soak the meat in a solution of water salt and baking soda and it Browns just like that mm-hmm so I'm gonna dissolve all this in the water mmm that looks pretty good now we're gonna have this 2 pounds of ground beef so now I'm just gonna toss this all together make sure that baking soda salt mixture really evenly coats the meat we're gonna let this sit on the counter for about 20 minutes all right now how our chili is doing over there I can start to smell them I smell good oh well they smell great yep I think they are good to go oh nice all right we're just gonna take these out of the skillet and add it right to a food processor because of course we are gonna turn this into chili powder all right so these chilies have been cooling I want to point out how crisp they are and how quickly they will break down into a nice chili powder oh yeah and obviously we're gonna add a few more ingredients to help round out the flavor starting with pretentious this is an ounce of tortilla chips and classically chiles thickened with masa but rather than track down MA so we're just gonna add some tortilla chips which helps thicken the chili and also help bulk up the mixture in this food processor so this will grind it down evenly so it's a twofer now we're gonna add some more spices and here we have 2 tablespoons of ground cumin a tablespoon of ground paprika tablespoon of garlic powder a tablespoon of ground coriander along with 2 teaspoons of dried oregano and here's a little kick 2 teaspoons of ground black pepper oh we go oh yeah last but not least a little thyme and this is a little unusual but it adds a nice floral note that you're not expecting this is just half a teaspoon of dried thyme now we have to grind this for a while in the food processor it's about two minutes but we're looking for a nice finely ground powder let's take a look here and see what we got Oh first thing you notice is that's oh yeah yeah so I'm looking for big pieces of Chile's left fine and I'm not seeing any it looks pretty finely ground so I think we're good to go Oh smells great yeah obviously a very different playing field when you make your own chili powder this thing has a real flavor all right so we're it's gonna suck this aside in a bowl and now we're gonna process some tomatoes for our chili and this is a 14 and a half ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes and juice we're just gonna process them for about 30 seconds until they're nice and smooth so I'm just gonna let them hang out in there while we get cooking so in this pot here I have a tablespoon of vegetable oil if you could please put that over medium-high heat we're just gonna get that pot hot while I chop it onion and so to cut an onion first I cut down going right to but not through that root end and then I slice in the other direction again right to but not through that end and then last but not least you slice down into a nice chop how's our oil looking is it looking pretty hot and a little shimmery it is definitely shimmery all right so now I'm gonna add this onion I love using these bench scrapers because it's a really easy way to move food around from the cutting board to the stove we're just gonna cook this over medium-high heat until it's softer that takes about four or six minutes all right so those onions are nicely softened now we're gonna add some garlic and this is three minced cloves of garlic we're gonna let it cook for about a minute you can really start to smell that garlic mmm that smells pretty good now we're gonna have the beef so very often recipes will tell you to add it in batches and to brown it you don't want to crowd the pan I am crowding the pan but it's okay it's gonna Brown anyway because of our baking soda trick it's very crowded mm-hmm so I'm just gonna cook this breaking up the meat into small pieces until it's nice and brown on the bottom of the pot and that takes about 12 to 14 minutes oh it smells beefy oh definitely and tons of color in there I actually was doubting Julie a little bit on that whole baking the brown track you see all that ground beef is beautifully Brown mm-hmm and some of that beef has rendered its fat which makes it a perfect time to add our spice mixture because most of these spices are oil soluble so some Chipotle's mm-hmm as you know Chipotle's are smoked jalapenos and they're quite spicy so you can add 1 to 2 teaspoons of this I went all in 2 teaspoons for us I can take it spicy yeah just has a really nice smoky flavor we're just gonna stir this for a minute or two really - bloom those spices before we add the rest of the ingredients and I have to say that was quite a bit of chili powder the homemade chili powder that you added there you know sometimes you see chili recipes that only add a tablespoon or two of chili powder this is putting the chili first beef goes in the backseat that's right Oh kind of just want to eat it right now yeah me too but we're not so now I'm gonna add some liquid this is just 2 cups of water so this is a 15 ounce can of pinto beans and I'm also gonna add the canning liquid because that liquid is the cooking liquid and it has good flavor and it'll help thicken up the chili and we have Texas on line 2 to talk about being this that's ground beef chili that's true always has been so no controversy here no mmm I'm gonna add just a little bit of sugar and this is 2 teaspoons of sugar last but not least our tomatoes right from the food processor all right let's give this a good stir well now that's starting to look like chili doesn't it oh it just looks good so we're just gonna bring this to a simmer and then we're gonna cook it in the oven it's really gonna need one and a half to two hours of simmering time in order to turn tender cooking a ground beef in a chili for one and a half to two and a half hours sounds like a long time and it is but that is on purpose you know most recipes will take a recipe for our ground beef chili and only cook it for a half an hour maybe 45 minutes you really do get tough pieces of meat in the chili this helps that beef to break down and all the collagen that's in the beef turn to gelatin much more tender chili that's right so I brought this up to a simmer now I'm gonna put a lid on it and we're gonna cook it in the oven a low oven 275 degrees that meat is tender and again that's one and a half to two hours so that chili was for two hours and then I've let it sit here uncovered for about ten minutes to cool off a bit before we eat it you notice it's got that layer of fat on the top now you might be tempted to take it off but don't do it leave the fat because remember those spices are oil soluble so a lot of their flavor is in that fat if you skim it off you'll lose flavor but also the Chili's gonna taste too lean so stir it in we do not want lean chili Julia no I'm gonna finish it with a little bit of vinegar this is two tablespoons of cider vinegar and of course we're gonna season it with a little salt that's what it means it's a little salt she's ready yes oh-ho you're gonna like it I'm gonna put a little extra in your bowl because once you start eating this stuff it's kind of hard to stop all right so now toppings I'm gonna start with a little bit of chopped fresh cilantro and a little bit of minced red onion and here we have some shredded cheese and some diced avocado a little dollop of sour cream and to finish this a spritz of lime juice oh this is like no ground meat chili you've ever had before serious respectful this choice I mean it is so much like the chunk Chili's you know where we cut up a whole chuck roast into big chunks it's got that same developed flavor yeah the sauce almost has that gravy like texture of that real Texas chili all in all this is excelente so you don't have to sacrifice flavor for convenience with ground beef chili Nick's pre-made chili powder and make your own toast ancho chiles on the stovetop and then process with spices and tortilla chips now for tender beef at baking soda when you Brown it and then build the chili sauce and cook it in an oven for up to two hours until rich and thickened and don't forget to serve with plenty of toppings there you have it from our Test Kitchen to your kitchen the very best ground beef chili seriously mm-hmm thanks for watching America's Test Kitchen what do you think we'll leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later I'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 499,383

Rating: 4.8958921 out of 5

Keywords: beef chili, how to make chili, ground beef chili, best chili recipe, america's test kitchen, americas test kitchen, america's test kitchen chili, chili recipes, beef chili recipes, comfort food recipes, one pot recipes, one pot chili

Id: nuuS_uBpRd4

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2019