The Best Chilli Con Carne

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a close up of a bowl of chilli con carne garnished with tomato, lime and avocado

5 from 9 votes

This chilli con carne recipe has it all. Fall apart chunks of tender beef in a rich thick, smoky spicy sauce. I've been making this for over 30 years, testing and refining time and time again until it is perfect!

Servings: servings

Author: Helen Best-Shaw

Prep Time15

Cook Time2

Total Time2 15

Ingredients

2 tbs dripping / vegetable oil - 1
450 g diced stewing steak - 2
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked chilli flakes
1 tsp smoked paprika
4 cardamom pods
2 onions - finely chopped
3 cloves garlic - chopped
4 squares dark chocolate
400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
400 g tin of black beans

To serve

1 lime

Instructions

Heat the oil in a flame-proof casserole dish. Fry the steak gently to brown each piece. Do this in stages rather than try to cook all the meat at once. Remove the cooked meat from the pot and set aside on a plate.
2 tbs dripping / vegetable oil, 450 g diced stewing steak
Lightly crush the coriander seed, cumin and cardamom in a pestle and mortar or in a spice grinder. Then add the spices to the casserole dish and fry until they release their fragrance.
1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 4 cardamom pods
Add the onion and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the garlic and fry until both the onion and the garlic are soft.
2 onions, 3 cloves garlic
Return the meat to the pan.
Add the chocolate, chilli paste and tinned tomatoes. Stir, put the lid on the casserole, and turn the heat right down. You may want to use a heat diffuser if you find it hard to get a very low heat.
4 squares dark chocolate, 1 tsp smoked chilli flakes, 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
Allow the chilli to simmer gently for 90 minutes to 2 hours, until the steak is tender and is starting to fall apart.
Drain the tin of black beans, reserving half the liquid. Add half the beans to the chilli.
400 g tin of black beans
Use a stick blender to blitz the remainder of the beans together with the bean liquid to make a thick paste. Add this to the chilli con carne and stir through.
Serve garnished with finely chopped coriander and a wedge of fresh lime.

Notes

Ingredients

1 - You can use oil, but I do think that meat fried in dripping is so much nicer. I have also used duck fat in this recipe rather than oil when I have not had dripping. Do not be scared of dripping, I do often use oil for frying, and am increasingly coming back to dripping as I feel it gives a better result. there is a reason Granny kept a dripping pot!

2 - Stewing or braising steak – ideally with a little fat on it. This chilli is slowly cooked for a long time so the tougher (and more flavoursome) and cheaper cuts of meat are ideal here. Beef shin would work well.

Hints and Tips

I like a smoky chilli, but the smokiness is completely optional. This chilli will still be delicious without using smoky chilli.
To get the smoky flavour, ideally use smoked chillies or a smoked chilli paste. You can also add some smoked salt or a drop or two or liquid smoke.
For best results this needs at least two hours cooking time and to be made a day in advance and reheated.
This recipe is perfect for batch cooking and can easily be doubled or even trebled. When scaling up you need proportionally less liquid so skip rinsing the tomato cans out and adding extra liquid. Cooking time will need to be about 30% longer
Because this is a long slow cooked dish it really does not work to scale the recipe down. It is best to cook extra that can be frozen for another day.
To prevent the dish drying out use a casserole dish with a well fitting lid which is the smallest you have for the amount you are cooking.

Storage

Fridge – The chilli will keep well for three days in the fridge. As soon as it is cool enough, transfer to a suitable container, cover and pop in the fridge.

Freezer – Transfer to freezer proof stackable containers (I love those plastic trays that takeaways come in) according to whether you want portions for one, two or more. When the chilli is cold, put the lids on and move to the freezer. Keeps well for three months.

• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.