First Place Chili Recipe
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First Place Chili is a top contender when it comes to comfort food that’s hearty, flavorful, and easy to whip up. This ground beef chili recipe packs bold spices, rich tomato flavors, and tender beef into one pot of pure satisfaction. Whether you’re feeding a crowd, meal-prepping for the week, or craving something cozy on a cold evening, chili checks every box. The best part? It’s endlessly versatile, letting you customize it to suit your taste or what you have on hand.
First Place Chili Recipe
Over the years I have tried more chili recipes than I can count on both hands trying to find the perfect mix of flavors to suit the Hubs. I’ve tried countless homemade recipes and many mixes before altering this Chili recipe numerous times.
He wanted the chili thick but still ‘soupy’. He wanted spicy, but not too spicy. And, yes, to beans. And I finally figured out he doesn’t like the taste of masa even though he insisted that he did.
I’ve never won a competition with First Place Chili. This recipe has simply come in first place with Hubs after many, many attempts at perfecting chili. (Updated December 5, 2024: Actually, now, two different readers emailed me to tell me they won Chili Cook-offs with this recipe!! This makes me so happy!!)
Stovetop method for First Place Chili
First Place Chili is spicy and hearty and can be made on the stovetop in just a few minutes. Make it early in the day and allow it to simmer for optimum flavor. It also makes a lot of money when selling for fund-raisers and is great for game day or entertaining. When I make it for my family of four, I plan to have leftovers such as chili dogs, nachos, and tamales.
Slow cooker Method
As well, First Place Chili can be made in a slow cooker. Break up the meats and cook for 1 one hour, stirring and breaking up the meat 3 or 4 times during the hour. Next, simply add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 4 hours on low.
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First Place Chili recipe is a great cold-weather meal. Made in one pot, it’s an easy weeknight dinner for your family with plenty of leftovers. Enjoy!
First Place Chili
Ingredients
- 1 pound pork sausage regular flavor
- 1 pound ground beef you can use lean ground beef, ground chicken or turkey
- 1 large white onion chopped, about 1 cup or to your taste
- 10 ounces tomatoes and green chiles Rotel tomatoes
- 16 ounces chili beans drain & rinse if you're concerned about sodium
- 15 ounces beans drained & rinsed. Any beans will work; use your favorite. I used chili and great Northern today.
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 3 Tablespoons chili powder adjust to your liking this is what I’ve found we like
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 Tablespoon masa harina instant corn masa mix- this will make it thicker. You can leave this out
Instructions
- Place sausage, beef and onion in a large stew pot over medium heat and cook until meat is browned and onions tender (about 15 min).
- Break the meat into crumbles as it cooks. Drain off excess fat. Mix the diced tomatoes, chili beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, salt paprika, oregano, garlic powder and cayenne pepper (and masa harina, if using).
- Bring the chili to a simmer and reduce heat. Simmer for at least an hour.
- Alternately, mix all ingredients in a slow-cooker and simmer for 4 hours on low.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
Pork sausage as in Italian (pork sausage)? Or breakfast pork sausage like Jimmy deans?
Breakfast pork sausage (plain, not sage or maple)
We just made this recipe we kept all seasoning the fans but we used a can of fired roasted tomatoes instead of tomato sauce and only used a little bit of dried onion flakes as we don’t like onions. We won a chili comp at my husband work with it. Great recipe
We were a bit concerned as halfway through cooking we read that this recipe has yet to win any contests. After following this recipe word for word (and leaving out the masa harina), the chili didn’t appear to have enough of a liquid component. We added a bit of tomato sauce, some beef broth, and a few pinches of brown sugar and hoped for the best…. And lo and behold – WE WON!!!! Honestly, we were a little shocked people would vote for a chili we called “Kitty Litter.” Thanks for the recipe! I’ll never forget you!!
I’m so happy you won!!! My family has always eaten ‘chunky’ chili and I forget a lot of people like ‘soupy’ chili. I’ll make a note of the tomato sauce for those. Thanks
I’ve been looking for a new chili and this was a hit!I will be making this again! 10 servings? Are these 10, one cup servings?
Made this tonight for dinner and everyone loved it! I’ve never had pork sausage in chili before and it was fantastic! I also subbed paprika for smoked paprika and used fresh garlic instead of powdered (my family are garlic lovers) but thank you for the recipe and will definitely be making it again!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Made it last night, everyone loved it! The only tweak I made was adding 1-2 cups of broth for a soupier texture. Some of that steamed off during the simmer but the final result was really good.
If I’m making it in the crockpot, do I also put the corn masa harina in with all of the other ingredients and have it cook the whole time or should I stir it in at the end? Looks delicious!
I mix it in at the beginning and let it cook the whole time.
Do you think using two pounds of ground beef will be fine? I don’t have any sausage on hand!
yes, it will.
Can you leave out beans family don’t like beans or use less beans will it still come out good thank you
Yes, absolutely. You can leave them out and it’ll still be good. (I didn’t like beans for a long time.)
This chili was really good! Except for two small tweaks, I followed this recipe to the letter. Where the recipe says to use 3 tablespoons of chili powder, I used 2 1/2 tbsp of regular chili powder and 1/2 tbsp of chipotle chili powder. The second tweak I did, was using 1/2 tsp of regular paprika and 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika. It was fantastic! Thanks for the great recipe. 🙂
Love your subs! Thanks for commenting.