This post is sponsored all opinions are my own. The best chili recipe ever is about to become award winning. The secret ingredient is beer! This beef beer chili will knock your socks off.
The Haley’s have been regular chili cook-off participants for years. One of our long standing traditions in San Diego was the annual Superbowl Sunday chili cook-off. The Hubs and his friends are highly competitive when it comes to chili, so he was always in charge of concocting our family chili entry.
Award Winning Chili
I have to give him credit, his chili is very good, and he always placed within the top 3, even winning a couple of times. He is lucky to have such a qualified chili consultant such as myself to bounce ideas off of.
While The Hubs chili is good, I had a few ideas of my own that I wanted to test out, so for the past several years, outside of the chili cook-off spotlight, I’ve been quietly preparing and testing my own custom chili recipe.
Recently I made yet another test batch of my newly dubbed beef beer chili for dinner and The Hubs (unprompted) said, “Wow! This is good!” and that’s how I knew I finally had perfected my recipe.
Time to find a contest to enter.
Luckily for me my friends at Sprouts and Simply Organic are hosting a coast to coast chili cook-off online!
While it’s not your traditional, blind tasting chili cook-off, my recipe is about to reach a way broader audience than The Hubs chili ever did. A win in this arena would without a doubt dub me the chili champion of our household.
I must win.
Beef Beer Chili
Since you all won’t be able to taste my chili, I’m providing you the full recipe including all my chili secrets, so that you can try it at home and impress your friends.
Heck, feel free to enter this beef beer chili recipe in your own chili cook-off. Just let me know if you win so I can rub it in The Hubs face.
Back to the secret ingredients. My chili contains two.
The first is Sprouts Butcher Shop beef stew meat.
I like to use stew meat in chili because it tenderizes over time. Chili is one of those dishes where the longer you cook it, the more flavorful it becomes, so using stew meat will ensure that a long, slow cook will result in super tender meat, and deep, rich flavors.
The second secret ingredient is beer.
This is a trick I learned years ago in college. I told a bartender friend of mine that I did not like bloody Mary’s and he claimed that he could make one I would like. Sure enough, he was right. His secret ingredient was a splash of Guinness beer.
When you add a smooth, dark beer to a tomato base, it counteracts the acidic flavor from the tomato in the best possible way.
Give it a try for yourself and head over to Sprouts.com to vote for my beef beer chili in their chili cook-off contest!
UPDATE: I WON!!! AWARD WINNING CHILI!!!
More great chili recipes
- Black Bean, Butternut Squash Chili with Crispy Chicken
- Chili Cheese Hasselback Potatoes
- Leftover Chili Mac Frittata
Spicy Beef Beer Chili
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 lbs beef stew meat
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 jalapeño finely diced
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 Tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 14.5 oz cans chili beans
- 2 cups dark beer
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 6oz can tomato paste
Instructions
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Season stew meat generously with salt and pepper. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add stew meat in small batches being careful not to crowd the pan. Brown meat on all sides, remove from pan and repeat with remaining meat until all meat is browned.
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Heat remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil in the Dutch oven. Add onion, garlic and jalapeño stirring frequently until onion begins to soften.
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Return meat to the pan and add remaining ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour or until mixture begins to thicken. The longer the chili simmers, the better the flavor becomes.
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Serve with shredded cheese, avocado, sour cream or any topping of your choice.
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Aaron Carner says
Very tasty chili! You have my vote!
Shawn Arnold says
Overall good flavor and straight-forward. Chili powder, especially in CA, comes in many options in most stores. While you promote McCormick’s, a fresh option with details would be great. I used mild California chili powder.
The beef was tough and chewy until the 2.5hr mark when it went to butter. As the directions don’t state covered/uncovered, I covered for the first hour where it was too thin and uncovered for the next 1.5hrs.
Flavor was too much tomato, so next time I’ll use one can of tomato paste and adjust from there.
Website, directions and pictures are top notch!
betsy says
Great feedback! I do the two cans of paste to thicken it, but I like the idea of uncovered/covered simmering to thicken.