This is popular at parties and is very simple to make. Beautifully sliced fresh chives offer flavor and color. If you’d like, you can also include finely sliced onion or garlic that has been crushed.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 20 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons bacon drippings
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 8 pounds beef stew meat, or coarse ground chili beef
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons ground red chile pepper
- 4 tablespoons mild chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- ¼ cup sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 3 (10 ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 3 cups water
- 2 tablespoons salt
- ¼ cup dried parsley (Optional)
- 1 fresh jalapeno peppers
- 1 cup masa harina flour
Instructions
- Melt the bacon drippings in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are translucent.
- Combine the beef with the garlic, ground chile, chili powder and cumin. Add this meat-and-spices to the onions in the pot. Break up any meat that sticks together as you cook, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes, until meat is evenly browned (very browned, not just gray). Sprinkle in Hungarian paprika and oregano.
- Pour in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, salt, parsley and jalapeno. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. NOTE: True Texans DO NOT add beans to their chili, but my husband loves them, so this is the point where you can add as many cans of drained and rinsed pinto beans as you wish (I add 2 cans, but shhhhhh don’t tell my Daddy!!!).
- During cooking you may squeeze the jalapeno as it softens against the sides of the pot to release more heat if desired.
- Mix in the masa harina, and cook while stirring for 30 minutes longer, or until desired consistency is achieved. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 512 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 122 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1106 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 36 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Wonderful!!! My favorite chili now without the jalapeños. Too much heat and no beans either. Yum!!!
This is an amazing recipe! I did make 2 small adjustments because of my husband’s diet needs, but OMG . So so good! I also made 2 separate batches for the Super Bowl and used brisket…. My daughter is very pregnant and asked me to add corn and mushrooms to it,; so separate batches it was. Lol. Just awesomeness.
This is my go to chili recipe. I usually use beef broth instead of water, canned fire roasted tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, no masa, and pinto beans. Always a winner!
Born & bred in Texas too… I LOVE THIS RECIPE!!! Hats off to your daddy. I made a few tweaks, to fit my palate. Best. Chili. Ever.
We are Texans and this is a family favorite. This is what I think of when someone says TEXAS CHILI. As written it’s very good. But you can easily play with the ingredients to make it your own.
Outstanding. Use two smoked jalapeños instead of the fresh and it’s over the top. All Texas baby.
Perfectly spicy and delicious. My husband and I LOVE this chili. What I can’t understand is when people change nearly the entire recipe and give it a bad review. So ridiculous.
Loved it! Used it in enchiladas with American Yellow cheese.
Yep, I‘ll make it again. Taste was just like I expected
I followed the directions to word by word the first time I made this. It was delicious and went over very well with my family, but it was missing something for me. I grew up eating my grandfather’s chili and for the life of me I cannot reproduce it because he never measured anything, just taste and add. So I tweaked this recipe with chili ground brisket, added some Italian Seasoning (basil, oregano, rosemary mix), added a touch of finely ground cilantro, and a lot more chili powder. Almost got grandpa’s chili, but I highly recommend this recipe for any chili lover.
well i am going to make it ..ordered all my spices…just wondered if 8lbs of chili beef was correct am making it for a chili cook off on sunday and if better to make it day before is better than heat it up in a crock pot for Sunday cook off for super bowl ..hope to hear back and thanks
This came out way too dry. There was no sauce at all. I look at the photos and do not see how there can be any liquid floating around with 8# of beef and only that small amount of water and tomato sauce. It’s not possible. I did a 1/2 recipe and still had to add an entire can of beef broth plus another 8 oz of tomato sauce. ..and it’s still not got much sauce relative to the meat. Man, I wish there were a way for folks to respond to each other here.
As a central Texan, we have no limit to good Mexican food but this chili was a bit much. Too spicy for me and I like spicy food. I even cut back on all the spices since some reviewed it as too spicy. The taste was OK but… it overshadowed the meat which should be the star. Could have just swallowed a bunch of spices. I had to add some cheddar cheese on top to make it easier to get down. After the second time we had it, that was all we wanted and the rest was thrown away.
Very delicious. Didn’t have all the specialty spices, but the regular ones seemed to work. Didn’t have the red peppers but it didn’t matter, still tasty. Used the left over brisket and cut it into chunks and made it so meaty. Will definitely make it again.
Had to scale down the recipe, but the flavors were amazing! I actually modified a little because I wanted more smokiness so I used 1 lb of cubed beef and 1 lb of fully cooked smoked brisket. My wife & I loved it! Thank you for sharing!!!
I needed a good batch of chili for canning so I based the recipe on this one. For canning purposes, I made it soupier with the addition of 2 quarts of tomato soup base I had already canned. I left out the jalepeño because my chili powder mix is already pretty hot from the serrano pepper powder I put in it. Also for canning purposes, I omitted the masa harina. But, that will go in after we open a quart jar the next time we eat chili for dinner. What a fabulous, true-Texan chili this is! FYI, with my changes, the recipe yielded 7 quarts, 3 pints, plus enough for a light lunch for me and the kids.
Won a chili competition with 29 entries!
This is a wonderful and flavorful chili! I am originally from Houston, Texas and while it is true that most Texans do not use beans in their chili recipe, making chili is all about what you have on hand and what you prefer. Thanks for the posting and keeping it real with the ingredients!
WOW!!! This recipe is AWESOME!! It took a little time to prepare but the overall outcome is truly tasteful. I did make some additions and changes. For ground red chili pepper I used ancho chile pepper and smoked paprika along with sweet paprika (quantities halved). I also added garden fresh red and green bell peppers to the mix but waited until all ingredients were already simmering. If you do not have a garden then any top quality red and green bell peppers will work. As mentioned in other reviews this recipe has just the right amount of heat. Not to much and is absolutely delicious!!! Even my seven year daughter, who is a VERY FINICKY eater LOVED IT.
This is wonderful. Hubby couldn’t take the chili powde or jalapenor. Too sensitive to peppers. This time I halved the chile pepper, deleted the jalapeno but added some finely diced bell pepper to onion and it was great for him. Thanks Daddy!
Won second place with this in chili cookoff! Used 1/2 of a large jalapeño and it was quite hot. Didn’t need masa. We did use angus, cut in small chunks and course ground chili meat. Definitely a keeper!