Wednesday's Chili

This is the chili you make when the fridge is bare and the kids are hungry. The trick is hidden in the soup aisle. A can of French onion soup blitzed in the blender for a minute melts into the ground beef and gives you all the savory backbone you’d normally get from sweating onions for half an hour. Mash it into the meat with a fork until the mixture looks like loose rice, and you’ve built a base most weeknight chilis miss.

From there it’s just simmering. Tomato paste tightens the sauce, kidney beans bulk it out, and a tablespoon of chili powder plus toasted cumin pulls everything into focus. Pack the beef firmly in the pan during the first 20 minutes so it browns instead of steaming. That’s where the deep meaty flavor comes from.

Serve it spooned into taco shells for a Tex-Mex twist, or with a slab of warm cornbread to mop the bowl.

Kitchen Tips

• Don’t drain the kidney beans. The starchy liquid thickens the chili and adds body.
• Cumin tastes flat straight from the jar. Add it to the meat after the salt so the warm fat blooms its oils.
• A spoonful of cocoa powder or a square of dark chocolate stirred in at the end deepens the color and rounds the heat.
• Make it a day ahead. Chili always tastes better the second day once the spices settle.

Variations

• Stir in a cup of frozen or canned corn with the beans for sweetness and texture.
• Swap kidney beans for black beans or pinto if that’s what’s in the pantry.
• Bump the heat with a chopped chipotle in adobo for smoky fire.