According to the internet, this is the best chili recipe—excuse me, the best damn chili. The recipe, by Danny Jaye on All Recipes, is the top result when you search “best chili recipe” on Google. And a lot of you searched that last year: It was one of 2015's top ten most-searched recipes.
It seems in order to have the greatest chili ever, you need to procure 28 ingredients, three of which are used for the sour cream topping. Compare that to best ever turkey chili for 16 ingredients, just good chili for 19 ingredients, and this pumpkin chili that, say some of our commenters, has too many—24—ingredients.
Kenji López-Alt's best chili ever surpasses with 27 ingredients (not including the optional garnishes), but he admits that his rendition is not traditional, but rather the tinkered, perfected, Best World Order version. It sounds exceptional (you blend toasted chiles with Marmite, anchovy, and chocolate; you rip browned meat off short ribs), but it isn't necessarily what people might be looking for when they type, hungrily, "best chili recipe."
The internet's top chili is more straightforward in technique, but the ingredients list is hardly consolidated: You will need both light beer (such as Coors, says the recipe) and white wine. You will need three types of peppers in addition to chipotle pepper sauce and smoked paprika. And you will need tomato in three mediums: crushed, fire-roasted and diced, and paste.
The question we wondered, going into testing the recipe was, then: Do you need so many ingredients to make the best chili ever?
Most of the negative comments on the recipe was about the chili being too tomatoey (what with three cans of tomato products). One person on our team of recipe testers, Emily, agreed with that sentiment, but still loved it.
The second recipe tester who made it had a similar reaction:
“I really enjoyed this recipe. It was straightforward and pretty much the textbook definition of what a tasty chili should be. Beef, beans, and a nice blend of spices led to a delicious meal.”
The directions weren't surprising or deceiving, nothing out of the ordinary for a chili—though it does require one pot for simmering and one pan for browning meat instead of the usual one-pot scenario. Our testers would make it again, adjusting the spices and tomato as they wished. So Internet, you almost, sort-of win this one: dishing out a recipe that might have too many ingredients, but is feasible and adjustable enough to each cook’s likes and pantries.
Check back tomorrow to see how the internet's best fried chicken recipe (!) fared.
Written by: Ali Slagle
Popular on Food52
8 Comments
Come on over to my place for some real eatin'. Maybe I'll smoke the meat first, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll pull it, maybe I'll chop it. But a few things are for sure: the chili will be much simpler than this, it won't need sour cream (though you're welcome to add it); you can top it with shredded sharp cheddar, slices of fresh serranos, and chopped green onions; and it'll knock your socks off.
History of Chili
http://www.chilicookoff.com/history/history_of_chili.asp
History and Legends of Chili
https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Chili/ChiliHistory.htm
A Brief History of Chili Con Carne
http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/01/19/a-brief-history-of-chili-con-carne/
Yeah, I can be just as hidebound as those Texans who rage at the rest of us about how our bowl of red just is not chili. But, in the end, if it tastes good...but "the best"? Isn't that in the mouth of the eater???
See what other Food52 readers are saying.