The Best Taco Chili Recipe
This recipe makes an IMPRESSIVE amount of chili. I typically make the whole recipe and freeze half of it for later when I can’t fathom the idea of cooking dinner. My estimation is that the recipe below makes about 12 servings. So you can easily halve the recipe if you’d like. Another beautiful thing about this taco chili recipe is that you can add or subtract basically any of the ingredients you want, based on your own personal preferences. The chili will still be good! Don’t like corn? Leave it out! Fresh out of bell peppers? Totally okay! There’s no need to be stickler about adherence to the exact recipe, and that’s one of the reasons I love this one.
Ingredients
For the chili
3 lbs ground turkey (you can substitute beef or any protein of your choice)
2 1 oz packets of taco seasoning mix
45 oz. plain tomato sauce
45 oz. diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can black beans
1 15 oz can red kidney beans
28 oz. sweet kernel corn (I use frozen)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
For serving
1 7oz bag of shredded cheddar cheese
1 15oz container of plain greek yogurt (or sour cream!)
1 avocado
Fresh Cilantro
1 bag Fritos (or serve with cornbread!)
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven, add a tablespoon of olive oil and brown the meat with diced onion over medium heat. Then add taco seasoning when nearly browned and mix well.
- Add in all remaining ingredients, mix well, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Depending on your chili thickness preference, you can also add a cup or more of water. So I recommend waiting until you’ve allowed the chili to simmer for a while before adding the water as ingredients will release water and the chili will not be quite as thick as it originally seems.
- Serve with accoutrements of your choice (see notes section below) and enjoy!
Notes
- I use 90 oz. of canned tomatoes (45 oz. tomato sauce and 45 oz. diced tomatoes) for the base. I used to do 30oz tomato sauce, 30oz diced tomatoes and 30oz. stewed tomatoes. But personally I don’t love finding a giant chunk of tomato in my chili that’s the size of my fist so I nixed the stewed and now just like to do half diced and half sauce. If you love the chunks, sub in some stewed tomatoes.
- I typically serve my chili with sour cream or greek yogurt, shredded cheddar cheese, cilantro, and sliced avocado. The avocado is also like an Instagram beauty filter for your chili presentation.
- I also love to make cornbread on the side and/or serve with Fritos. (If I don’t simply EAT ALL MY FRITOS while waiting for the chili to cook.)
- You can also add or substitute any additional beans you like (i.e. pinto beans, garbanzo beans, etc.)
Please feel free to leave additional favorite chili accompaniments in the comments below. It’s going to be a long winter and I like to keep things interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m starving.
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