Description
No one will ever guess that this delicious chili was made with just 5 ingredients!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 lb. ground beef or turkey*
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 3 (15 oz.) cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 2 (15 oz.) cans beans, drained (black beans, kidney beans, a combo, or whatever you like)
- 2 Tbsp. chili powder
- (optional toppings: shredded cheese, chopped green onions, sour cream, cilantro, etc.)
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, cook ground beef or turkey over medium-high heat until browned, stirring frequently. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked beef or turkey to a separate plate and set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon of grease in the stockpot, and discard the rest.
- Add the onion to the stockpot and saute for 4-5 minutes, or until soft.
- Add remaining ingredients and the cooked beef or turkey to the stockpot, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with optional toppings if desired. Or, store in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Notes
*If using ground turkey, you will need to heat a tablespoon of olive oil beforehand to help cook and brown the turkey, and then add an additional tablespoon of oil to cook the onion.
**You can also make this in the slow cooker. You just need to brown your meat on the stove and drain it before adding the meat to your slow cooker. Then slow cook the chili on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
This recipe has made me a hero at home. The fam doesn’t like beans so I leave that out. Also, I double everything and use one pound of lean ground beef and Italian sausage. Yummy.
Thanks for sharing Ray! We’re happy it was a hit! :)
I have been making chili for decades, and this is one of the best recipes I’ve come across.
Only change I made was to remove the meat after browning, drain it, then add the onions
and saute them until slightly brown. Then I added back the meat and all the other ingredients. Cooked it
for about an hour on top of range. Topped with shredded Monterey Jack and Colby.
Thanks for sharing Charlotte! We’re glad you enjoy this!
I am a senior and live alone. Making any meal a
challenge due to cooking for one.
Had these ingredients in the house and was
craving chili.
Going to make your recipe today.
Thank you.
Bea Zahn
beazahn2011@gmail.com
Hello Bea! We are so happy you’re here! We hope you enjoy the chili! :)
I love this chili! After the first time making it I made a few adjustments to make it less spicy (I’m breastfeeding and the chiles and chili powder irritated my little girl a bit). I just use diced tomatoes and a tablespoon and a half of chili powder instead. Still delicious! Thanks for posting!
Thanks for sharing Suzanne — we’re happy you enjoyed this! :)
This sounds simple and delicious! One question – have you ever tried this in the crockpot?
Thanks Sarah! We haven’t, but we do have a slow cooker chili recipe that is similar.
Do you use Rotelle tomatoes with green chilis? I cannot find any other brand of tomatoes with chilis in it.
Yes, those are great — we hope you enjoy this! :)
I made this chili and it was so good! My husband was scraping his bowl and said this was the best chili he had ever had. Even my toddler ate a bowl! I followed all the instructions and we found it wasn’t spicy at all. So I added extra chili powder. My question is which brand of chili powder did you use? I used McCormick and my chili didn’t have the rich burgundy color that yours did.
Thanks for sharing with us Kelly — we’re so glad you and your family enjoyed it! We like the Simply Organic brand of chili powder.
Hi! This chili was delicious, so far I’ve made it twice! The first time I made it, I cut all the ingredients in half because that’s all the ground turkey we had left. The second time around I made it with the exact measurements as shown. This time around I felt the beans were a bit overwhelming. May I ask what brand of beans do you usually use? The ones I used were the canned chili beans, they were a bit large and in your picture it doesn’t seem as big in size. Or maybe next time I’ll just use 1 can of beans instead.
Also when I cook the chili, it is a bit watery at the end so I just turn off the heat and keep the top on it for maybe 10 minutes to soak up the liquid (but then i dont have much sauce left lol). As seen in the picture, your sauce looks a bit thick and I was wondering what I might be doing wrong?
Nevertheless, Thanks for the delicious recipe!!! Hope to hear from you :)
Hi Stephanie! We used kidney beans for the recipe we shot, but we’ve made this with other beans/combos. It honestly doesn’t sound like you’re doing anything wrong. Did you drain your beans? Otherwise we’re not sure why it could be turning out a little watery. It could be that it just needs to simmer a little longer. We hope this helps!
Hi there! Very excited to ry this recipe as im dieting and looking for protien rich FLAVORFUL food to add to the regime. I was wondering what a serving of this would looklike calorie wise?
Hi Antonia! We hope you enjoy this! As for the calories though, we unfortunately aren’t sure. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
I made this recipe tonight for dinner (just me and my husband). We both loved the flavor. I did add crushed red pepper to give it an extra kick but it was good as is as well, and we have plenty of leftovers :) Can’t wait to try your other recipes!
Awesome, sounds delicious! So glad you enjoyed it. :)
Definitely my go-to chili recipe! I always look forward to making this when it gets colder outside. I make it in the crockpot and it turns out great… I even add some fresh diced jalapeños for some extra heat :) I love to cook but I’m a beginner-I truly appreciate that you provide delicious yet easy recipes for people like me!
We’re so glad to hear that, Kayla, and we bet the fresh jalapeños are awesome in this — great idea! :)
For years, I’ve only ever made my husband’s favorite chili recipe, but I was in a hurry, and this looked delicious, and I always like your recipes. When I threw it together, it just didn’t look liquidy enough to me–not like it does in your pictures. Since my husband’s recipe calls for tomato juice, I threw in a little V-8 that I had on hand. That seemed to help it come together in the way I wanted it to. My husband said it didn’t smell “spicy enough” but the taste was spot on. Easy, healthy, and delicious. I’ll definitely be making it again.
Thanks for sharing with us, Becki — we’re so glad you and your husband enjoyed this!
Could I substitute tomatoe sauce for the tomatoes and chilis. Me and my husband dont like tomatoes or green chilies.
Hi Devon! Yes, we think that would be fine. We hope you and your husband enjoy!
my family loved it it was very good !!!
We’re glad to hear that, Lily! :)
I have been looking for a simple chili recipe for an upcoming Cub Scout overnight campout. My den of 11 third grade boys is in charge of cooking dinner and they decided on hot dogs and chili. This recipe looks perfect- not too many ingredients and not too spicy for the kids. You have stated that this recipe yields 4-6 servings. Approximately how large are those servings? Knowing that would make it easier to determine how many times I need to multiply the recipe to serve our large group (about 40 people total, split pretty evenly betwenn kids and adults). Thanks for the recipe and for any info you can give on serving size!
Hi Jenny! A serving is a good (standard-sized) soup bowl-full. To make sure you definitely have enough (especially since adults will probably eat more), we’d recommend doing 8x the recipe. We hope this helps and that everyone enjoys! :)
Finally, after scouring the web, here in lies an easy to follow, simple ingredient chili recipe without the extra fluff (e.g. cinnamon, chocolate, beer, nine different beans, etc). I really appreciate this “back to basics” recipe. Our temperatures are getting colder in in the Midwest and I have chili on my mind. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment, Brad — we hope you enjoy it! :)
Not really a cooker but wanted to attempt to make chili. Thank you for this quick and easy recipe. Added a few ingredients to get the flavor I wanted and it was perfect. My 12 year old son and I had a blast making it. Thanks again for this recipe.
Thanks for sharing with us, Kimberly, and for giving this a try! We’re so glad you and your son had fun making it and that you enjoyed it! :)
Let’s say I forgot to drain the cans of black beans before dumping in…any ideas anyone? haha!
You should be fine — we hope you enjoy! :)
Well I had your recipe but I added bell pepper and more onions and more chili powder because my husband likes it spicy I put chili flakes he loved it thank you for the recipe I make chili pie Frito pie I’m used it for hot dogs?
We think that sounds great, Carmen! :)
Do you have to add any broth or liquid to this recipe?
Hi Carol! No, you don’t drain the tomatoes, so there will be liquid from those. Also, since this is a chili instead of a soup, it’s not meant to be very liquidy. If you find you’d like it to be more liquidy though, you can definitely add a bit of stock or water to it. We hope you enjoy!
Being a guy that is from KCMO, i thank you for the recipe.. I moved to Las Vegas. I LOVE the Chiefs. Always will… Have a good one.
Looking forward to us beating the Froncos on Sunday and Christmas…. and yes, i call the the froncos. lol
You’re welcome, Scott — we hope you enjoy the chili!
Really good, but couldn’t get enough juice, nor chili taste, has to add a chili pack.
We’re glad you enjoyed it — definitely feel free to add a bit of stock or water, and more chili powder to it next time if you like!
Very good and super easy! Will make again soon!
We’re glad to hear you enjoyed this!
Made this tonight for me and my husband and it’s very bland! I will not be recommending this receipt to anyone! 5 ingredients is a joke!
We’re sorry you didn’t care for it!
FYI it’s great even with no meat. Used my fav veggie protein, and it was awesome! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks for sharing, Susan — we’re so glad you enjoyed it!
This is a good and simple recipe. However, I like my chili more thick (like the chili in the pics above). This chili did not come out like the one in the pics so I will probably be adding some flour to make it thicker.
We’re sorry this wasn’t quite what you were hoping for, Vonni!
Do I need to use a stockpot for this chili recipe?
I recommend a large stock pot, since this makes a pretty large batch of soup. :)
Perfect! Simple. Quick. Delicious AND I had all the ingredients at home. Added chilli peppers for kick and it was great! Thanks for sharing I likely will reuse this recipe over and over.
Yay, so glad you enjoyed it!
Definitely going to make this but think I will chili beans instead of ones mentioned for little more kick.
Awesome, we hope you enjoy it, Charity!
This is surprisingly delicious!!! I added some green pepper and celery … and a little bit of water. I cooked it in my crockpot on High for 3 hours. Excellent!!!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it!
We were in the mood for chili, and I was short on time, so I put this in the crockpot one morning, and it was absolutely delicious! I made a few variations because of the ingredients I had on hand. I substituted a can of stewed tomatoes for one of the cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles, added a can of tomato soup and a can of tomato paste (to add a bit more body to the chili), and because I can never completely follow a recipe. I added a bit of cumin. My husband found it “tasty”; that means he loved it. We served it with Fritos. shredded cheese, and sour cream. Perfect!
Thanks for sharing with us, DL — we’re so happy it was a hit (and we like your additions)! :)
I love LOVE this recipe! I’ve made this twice before for my husband and I and we both enjoy it very much! I just had to let you know after making it today for the third time that it’s one of my top favorites. I recently wrote a post about it on my site linking it back to this exact page. It was the perfect day to make this! Thanks for sharing this quick recipe!
Thanks for sharing with us, Martika — we’re so glad you guys enjoy it, and that’s so nice of you to link back from your blog! :)
Thanks for sharing. I like trying new receipes. However for anyone scouring, have a back up plan. Like another reviewer said, the only liquid is in the tomatoes and it’s a watery liquid. The chili powder alone wasn’t ‘dimensional’ enough. Without garlic, cumin etc it was both bland and too spicy. I can eat some spice, but even with the pared down amount of powder, ‘my kids didn’t like it. Thanks again for the new recipe, but I’ll go back to my old one. (Only 2 more ingredients and tastes better.) No meanness intended I promise. I enjoyed trying it. Just wish I’d had a back up. Ended up making grilled cheese.
Hi Angie! We appreciate your honest feedback and we’re sorry to hear you didn’t care for this one so much.
I made this chili for dinner tonight. I did not drain any of the cans. I used 2# of ground beef, 2 cans of the Rotel, 2 cans of kidney beans, 1 onion, and the chili powder you recommended. After cooking, the taste was a little bland, so I added a little salt. We topped the chili with cheese and sour cream. My family loved it! My children don’t like onions, but the chili was so good, they never detected the onions! I’m planning on making more this week! Thanks for an easy recipe!
Thanks for sharing with us, we’re glad it was a hit with your family!
Hello Hayley @ Gimme Some Oven so I was wondering how did you get darkness in your chili and how do I get it to look exactly like yours in the picture above?
Hi Sierra! It’s just the particular type of chili powder we used. Some are darker than others. We hope you enjoy!
With a little tweaking of the recipe was the best and we made it or own!
We’re glad to hear that! :)
I make this often…love it. If I don’t have the spicy tomatoes I use a bit of my own or a jarred pasta sauce instead and add some salsa and it comes out great!
Thanks for sharing, we’re so glad you enjoy it!
This Chili is AMAZING and not at all bland. Perhaps others thought it was dry because they cooked it on the stove but I cooked it in the crockpot on high for 4 hours and it came out perfect. The mixture of all the different flavors gave it a delicious flavor and had a generous amount of fluid. Thanks for this!!
Thank you, Eli — we’re so happy you enjoy it! :)
When you cook in the slow cooker, do you brown the ground beef first or just place everything in raw? Thanks
I also used both kidney and black beans
It’s great and easy! No need to brown the onions if in a hurry. Tonite I did though, and used ground sirloin. Can’t wait to dig in!
We hope you enjoyed it! :)
Great recipe! I live in Northern Ontario. And used ground moose meat. Absolutely good. One thing I did do was add a cup of beer to it. It didn’t liquefy enough. Oh and red peppers and celery. ( moose meat is very lean and dry). Highly recommend this recipe. Thanks ???
Thanks, Maegen — we’re glad to hear you enjoy it! :)
Do you have a calorie for X amount of Ounces for this?
Hi Jennifer! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Hello! I’m a college student who loves to cook and is learning how to meal prep and I spend a lot of time looking for simple recipes that allow me to save money when it comes to grocery shopping. This was perfect! The taste was great, actually, I should say IS great as I sit here eating a bowl of it. When I first threw it together it didn’t look like enough liquid but after I let it simmer for a while it turned out to have a perfect consistency. I went for the ground turkey option and did 2 cans of regular diced tomatoes and one can of the kind you recommended because I’m a wimp when it comes to spice. The flavor was perfect. Thanks for an easy and tasty recipe!
Hi Sarah! Thanks for sharing with us and for giving the recipe a try — we’re so glad you enjoyed it! :)
no one should criticize this recipe, it is the basic chili base. We make a lot of chili you have gave people the base and from which to work from, if they do not understand this recipe they have a lack of imagination or taste. you have done a great service,..from Fat Arnold ‘s. B B Q
If i use chili beans with mild chili sauce should I still drain them ?
We think you’re probably fine not to drain them in that case. We hope you enjoy!
I made this for a quick lunch today and it was amazing! I used ground turkey and found that I did not need to add any oil because the moisture from the meat was enough. I subbed the canned tomato+chile for cans of stewed tomato with green pepper and onion, and I added 1tsp each of paprika and cumin. I will definitely make this again.
Thanks for sharing, we’re so glad you enjoyed this!
Can this be done in a slow cooker??
Hi Jennifer! Yes, it can, and we actually have a slow cooker chili recipe: We hope you enjoy!
I love quick easy recipes and this one is a favorite of ours. Would you happen to know the caloric content per serving?
Thanks!
We’re so glad to hear that, Rose — thanks for sharing with us! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Cooked it today and the taste was a-a-maaa-zzz-ing! Simple to prepare, added more chilli powder as I liked it spicier. Thanks for the recipe!
Yay, so happy to hear it!
Hi!
This recipe has become a favorite and dinner rotation at the house. However, I’ve been wanting to make it for weeks now and my supermarket just don’t sell these anymore :(. I do see that they have diced tomatoes with chipotle chilies instead… would that make a huge different, can I use them?
Thanks