Chili Con Carne is a delicious way to get dinner on the table in a hurry. This spicy, savory stew is wonderful!
The local markets in my city have a new Mexican stall and I found these great Ancho chiles that the man told me were the mildest chiles they had. I adapted this Chili con Carne from a recipe the Mexican stall owner gave me.
Originally, in his recipe he used habanero chiles, but he said these were very spicy so I decided to get the Ancho chiles instead.
It’s a super simple recipe and has such a full, delicious flavour. All you have to do is chop all the veggies, cook the meat, and then let it all stew together in a slow cooker. Super easy!
If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can add cook the meet in a large frying pan and then add all the other ingredients to the same pan as per the instructions and cook on low heat in the frying pan for about 2-3 hours.
This is a great dish to make if you have a big family or want to meal prep because you can make a large batch really easily to feed a lot of people or pack into containers and freeze for quick meals to eat throughout the week.
I just eat this chill con carne with steamed green veggies as I’m trying to cut down on starchy carbs, but it also tastes delicious with rice or corn tortilla chips.
The Mexican stall also had some super delicious Mexican tortilla chips made from corn and they were so delicious; much better than any corn chips bought from the store.
The ancho chilies (and all the other chilies at the stall) were very big so I used just 3 of them and had to remove the seeds, otherwise it would be too spicy.
These were the mildest chilies so my chili con carne had only the slightest bit of spice so if you’re someone who loves spicy food than you will want to use chilies that are much hotter.
Enjoy the recipe!
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Chili Con Carne Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-3 Dried Ancho Chile
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 500 grams Ground Beef about 17 1/2 ounces
- 1 Onion chopped
- 1 Green Bell Pepper chopped
- 3 medium Carrot chopped
- 3 stalks Celery chopped
- 2 14.5 ounce cans Diced Tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon Chili Powder
- 2 teaspoons Oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- Crumbled Cooked Bacon
Instructions
- Soak the dried Ancho chiles in water for 20 minutes then deseed and chop finely.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over high heat and fry the beef to cook and brown.
- Add all the chopped veggies and cook for a few minutes then turn the heat off.
- Place the cooked beef and veggies in a slow cooker.
- Add the cans of tomatoes and chopped chiles and all the spices.
- Set the slow cooker on low and cook for 4-5 hours.
- Serve with crumbled bacon on top.