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An aromatic, slow-cooked chilli is always a good idea! It just makes the perfect comfort food. And this Easy Chilli Con Carne (With Chocolate And Coffee) may be the best chilli ever! Loaded with sweet potatoes and peppers, hearty beans and corn, and LOTS OF warming spices. Plus 2 secret ingredients – coffee and chocolate! Seriously delicious! Don’t hurry up, give it time and you’ll be rewarded with the most beautiful, deep, rich flavor.
Easy Chilli Con Carne
I tried a lot of different chilli con carne recipes. But none of them was the one for me. So I combined a few different recipes into one, added a bit from myself and I think I made the most delicious chilli con carne ever! 🙂
Why this easy chilli is so delicious:
- It’s slow-cooked to the perfection – rich flavor, amazing texture.
- It’s loaded with beautiful ingredients – sweet potatoes, red peppers, sweet corn, and red kidney beans.
- Lots of aromatic, warming spices.
- 2 secret ingredients – coffee and dark chocolate!!
- It makes the ultimate comfort food.
- It can be served in many, many different ways.
- It’s super freezer-friendly.
If you haven’t tried making chilli yet, it’s the time! It’s very easy to make and although it takes some time to cook, the preparation time is short. Nothing difficult here, I promise. It’s a one-pot dish!
The best part is that the chilli can stay in the fridge up to 4-5 days! And it tastes better each day. You can serve it in so many different ways so even though the base is the same, you’ll be eating a totally different dish each time!
Let me give you some ideas on how to serve your chilli leftovers:
- With rice, avocado, and tomato salsa.
- Put it on top of french fries or nachos.
- Stuff peppers and courgettes with chilli and bake!
- With potatoes – make a pie, or simply stuff them and bake.
- With flatbreads, cornbread or arepas – so good.
- With tacos and tortillas – easy peasy.
- With pasta – lasagna, why not?
- With rolls, hot-dogs, and hamburgers – who doesn’t love a good sandwich?!
- With eggs – baked eggs with chilli!
- With savory pancakes or waffles – when you want to feel a bit fancy. 😉
These are just some ideas! Plenty of options!
What you need for chilli con carne
We all know chilli con carne, fewer people have heard about its other meatless version – chilli sin carne. Instead of meat, it is full of beans and veggies. Both versions are TOTALLY amazing. Choose the one that works best for you.
Here’s what you need:
- Ground beef.
- Onion and garlic – basics.
- Tomatoes – you can use canned crushed/whole/chopped tomatoes or passata (tomato purée).
- Veggies – bell pepper and sweet potato.
- Beans and sweet corn kernels – I like using red kidney beans, but feel free to add any you want.
- Spices – cumin, smoked paprika, paprika, oregano, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
- Soy sauce and balsamic vinegar – to add more depth to the sauce.
- Coffee and dark chocolate – the 2 “secret” ingredients that make this chilli so good!
This recipe can be easily made vegan – just skip the meat. Instead, add more beans, sweet potatoes, and peppers. You can totally adjust it to your needs – use lentils, chickpeas, carrots or pumpkin. It will taste amazing!
Don’t be afraid of adding chocolate and coffee. It won’t taste weird, I promise. Chocolate, coffee, and cinnamon work PERFECTLY with beef. You need to try! If you don’t have dark chocolate, you can use unsweetened cacao powder instead!
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AuthorEwaCategoryBeef, One-pan, Sunday dinnerDifficultyBeginnerThis may be The Best Chilli Con Carne Ever! Loaded with sweet potatoes and peppers, hearty beans and corn, and LOTS OF warming spices. Seriously delicious!
Click on the servings to scale the recipe to your needs.
Click a timer link in the recipe to start a countdown clock.
In all my recipes 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml, 1 tablespoon equals 15 ml, 1 cup equals 250 ml. Spoons and cups are lightly packed.
Finely chop the onion and garlic.
Heat a large pan or pot over medium heat with a bit of oil, add chopped onions and garlic. Cook until the onion is soft.
In the meantime, chop pepper and sweet potato into bite-size pieces. Add to the pot. Cook for a few minutes.
Add beef, breaking it up into small pieces with a spoon. Add all the spices (paprika powders, cumin oregano, salt, pepper, annatto, cinnamon). Cook for a few minutes more.
Add water, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, coffee, chocolate, corn, tomato paste, canned tomatoes. Mix and cover the pot. Cook on the low heat 2 hours stirring from time to time.
After 2 hours, add beans and cook for 30 minutes more. If the chilli is not thick enough, cook it uncovered to reduce the liquid, stirring often. Taste and season more if needed.
Serve!
Ingredients
Directions
Finely chop the onion and garlic.
Heat a large pan or pot over medium heat with a bit of oil, add chopped onions and garlic. Cook until the onion is soft.
In the meantime, chop pepper and sweet potato into bite-size pieces. Add to the pot. Cook for a few minutes.
Add beef, breaking it up into small pieces with a spoon. Add all the spices (paprika powders, cumin oregano, salt, pepper, annatto, cinnamon). Cook for a few minutes more.
Add water, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, coffee, chocolate, corn, tomato paste, canned tomatoes. Mix and cover the pot. Cook on the low heat 2 hours stirring from time to time.
After 2 hours, add beans and cook for 30 minutes more. If the chilli is not thick enough, cook it uncovered to reduce the liquid, stirring often. Taste and season more if needed.
Serve!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it went! Tag me on Instagram – @cooking.with.ewa or leave a comment below.
How’s Pepper?
It turned out that I am not the only fan of nachos in our house. 😀
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Sounds like a delicious dinner I should try out soon!
Yuhu! I hope you will like it!
I love a good homemade chilli con carne and yours looks fabulous!! I’ve heard about adding chocolate to chilli, but I’ve never had the guts to do it myself as I’m worried I wouldn’t get the amount right. My mum said just a couple of squares is all you need so I really must try it!
You have to try 🙂 It’s really not difficult!
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Wow, this chili sounds amazing! Not only would the dark chocolate and coffee give it a warming taste, but the cinnamon would as well. This would be great for a football game!
Thank you! 🙂
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