Chili---my husband and I are arguing, help me!

Ground beef, with beans.

My neighborhood has a chili cookoff every year and every year I'm amazed at all the different ways people have of preparing chili.

Oklahoma raised (and back now) I make it with ground beef, beans, tomatoes and of course chili peppers.

Chili con carne (chili with meat) is chili peppers, beans and the addition of meat.
Chili con frijoles (chili with beans) was chili pepper, meat and beans.

I'v known it ot have meat chunks (Texas father in law) and hamburger (Okie mom) IMO neither one is wrong but both will insist theirs is right.

I'm going to throw a wrench in the gears here and say that my favorite chili has shredded beef in it, usually brisket that's been smoked.

But for ease and speed, when I generally make chili, it's with ground beef and red beans.

Um. That sounds amazing.

The family LOVES my father in law’s recipe that he made up, it has ground beef and red kidney beans. I pick the beans out of my portion, not a bean eater.

My personal favorite chili recipe is Rachael Ray’s Uptown Down-Home Chili recipe that i have made enough that i have tweaked for the family’s taste and simplification. I don't even like beer, but love it in this recipe.
Sharon

ground beef, beans and - wait for it - macaroni! (gasp!!)

We’ve never made chili with anything not ground. We use ground beef, turkey, or bison with beans and stewed tomatoes, as well as other things.

I've made simple chili with ground turkey or beef, canned tomatoes, onions, red beans, and a seasoning packet.

The band used to have a chili cook-off before a game, usually the end of September. I found out there were a few vegetarians and vegans in the band so I made a vegan chili and that was a hit.

My family is a family of cook off chili cookers. Chili for competition is chili grind which is not quite chunks and not quite ground. We are not allowed to put anything in the chili that marks the chili and makes it recognizable to the judges. No seeds, no peppers, no onions, no beans, no mushrooms. It is sauce and meat and that is it. The trick is getting the flavor into your chili without leaving any markings in it. I use a jalapeño and serrano pepper with small slits cut in them. I put both of them in a clean ankle hose and let it simmer in the chili. After it has simmered for about an hour, I squeeze the juice from the peppers into the chili so I get the flavor but the hose screens out the seeds.

I do make chili with ground beef but I also make it with just about an meat available. I’ve made it with shredded beef or shredded pork or chicken as well.

For me chili is made by the spices & the peppers. Also imho chili must have beans of some kind, else it’s just a spicy meat sauce, sloppy joes or the infamous ‘loose meat’ stuff they sell somewhere in mid or southern America. I mean I’m not going to argue with someone who serves me a beanless chili, but in my head I’m missing the beans.

So yea I’m sure pioneer woman’s chili is chili.

I’m completely unclear on the regional differences between
‘loose meat’
‘Sloppy Joes’
And ‘barbecue’

Because they seem interchangeable depending on where you are. Previously I would have said the difference was sauce but I’ve been served ‘sloppy Joes’ with bbq sauce. I’ve been served both pulled ‘loose meat’ and chopped ‘loose meat’ I’m not really sure what the hell loose meat really is. And who decided ‘loose meat’ was an appetizing name?

But I draw the line at anyone calling chopped meat in bbq sauce ‘barbecue’ because it isn’t. southerners would y’all back me up on that?

This Texan makes it with ground beef and I put beans in mine.

I always thought it had to have hamburger and beans to be considered chili.

thems fightin' words