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Willie's Chili

A Go Cook! print original.

Prep: 20 mins Cook: 120 mins Yields: Serves 4, twice.

This is the chili of my childhood, often prepared by my dad. This is a vastly scaled-down version of a VA Hospital recipe that fed 1100 people at a time.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and sliced
  • 2 or 3 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 one pound cans of chili beans (use 15oz cans)
  • 2 one pound cans of kidney beans (use 15oz cans), rinsed
  • 2 28 ounce cans of stewed whole tomatoes or equivalent fresh tomatoes, including green tomatoes

Instructions

  • Brown the ground beef in a stew pot in the presence of the chili powder.
  • Add the onions and cook until tender.
  • Add the kidney beans and chili beans.
  • Add the tomatoes.
  • Fill both chili bean cans with water and add to the pot. If desired, add more water.
  • Simmer, stirring, for at least 2 hours.

  • Serve with corn bread.

  • Add the beaten egg, spices, and Worcestershire sauce.

  • Shape into a load, in a loaf pan.
  • If desired, hide the peeled hard cooked eggs in the center of the loaf.
  • Spread ketchup over the top of the loaf.
  • Bake for 1 hour.

Chef's Notes

My Take

I often take this recipe in other directions, but it is a solid Midwestern chili that just works. Even better the next day.

Source

My grandfather Henry Willis would make chili for the masses when he was a cook at the VA hospital in Knoxville, Iowa. He taught this recipe my dad Jim in 1953 so he would know how to cook something when he got to college.