This is the chili we make at home: two pounds of beef, two green peppers, one onion and no jalapeño. It's thick and mild enough for everybody, and it still tastes like chili. It simmers on the stove in about an hour, works in a slow cooker, and can go in the freezer as dump bags.

Prep: 15 minutes
Stovetop: 45 to 60 minutes
Slow cooker: LOW 6 to 7 hours
Serves: 8
Freezer: 2 bags, up to 2 months

Ingredients

2 lb ground beef (85% lean)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
2 cans (15.5 oz each) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef broth, plus more if you like it looser
2 packets (about 1¼ oz each) chili seasoning mix
Salt, to taste (taste first: the seasoning mix is already salted)
Black pepper, to taste

For serving, if you like: shredded cheddar, sour cream, sliced green onions, corn chips or skillet cornbread.

On the stove

Brown the beef. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F, breaking it into crumbles as it cooks. Drain off most of the fat, leaving a spoonful or two for the vegetables.
Soften the vegetables. Add the onion and green peppers. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, until the onion turns translucent and the peppers lose their crunch. Stir in the garlic for the last 30 seconds.
Build the base. Stir in the tomato paste and the chili seasoning and cook 1 minute, which wakes the spices up. Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth and beans, and stir well.
Simmer. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer 45 to 60 minutes, stirring now and then, until a spoon dragged across the bottom leaves a trail. If it gets thicker than you like, add a splash more broth.
Season and serve. Taste, then add salt and pepper if it needs them. Ladle into bowls and let everyone add their own toppings.

In the slow cooker

Brown the beef first (step 1 above). Raw ground beef cooked straight in a slow cooker turns out greasy and grey, so this step isn't optional. Put everything in a 6-quart slow cooker, stir, and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours or HIGH for 3 to 4 hours. The peppers end up softer than in the stovetop version.

As freezer dump bags

The beef is the only part you cook ahead, and it goes in the bags cold. All of it together weighs about 7 pounds, more than one gallon bag will hold flat, so split it between two gallon freezer bags. Both go into the cooker together on cooking day.

Brown the beef to 160°F, drain it, and let it cool completely. Doing this the day before is fine: cooked beef keeps in the refrigerator overnight.
Fill two bags, dividing everything evenly between them: the cooled beef, onion, peppers, garlic, beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste, plus one packet of chili seasoning in each bag. Leave the broth out. It goes in on cooking day.
Seal the bags flat and label them: "House Chili, bag 1 of 2 (and 2 of 2)", the date, "thaw in the fridge 24 hours", and "add 1 cup beef broth". Freeze for up to 2 months for best quality.
On cooking day, thaw both bags in the refrigerator for about 24 hours, until no ice is left in the middle. Never thaw them on the counter or in the slow cooker. Empty both bags into a 6-quart slow cooker, add 1 cup beef broth, stir, and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours or HIGH for 3 to 4 hours. Taste, then add salt and pepper at the end.

The freezer dump bag guide explains the thawing and the freezer times, with sources.

Notes from our kitchen

No jalapeño, on purpose. The recipe this one started from calls for one. We left it out and didn't miss it. If you want heat, put a pinch of cayenne or some hot sauce on the table, so the people who like it hot can add it to their own bowls.
Two peppers, one onion. This is how we make it, and the peppers do a lot of the work in this chili.
85% lean beef has enough fat to taste like chili, but not so much that you spend the afternoon draining it.
Optional extras stay optional. Some chili recipes add beer or a little brown sugar. We skipped both and used broth.
Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.

How this recipe was made

We cooked this chili on the stove in October 2026. The beef, peppers, onion, beans, broth, diced tomatoes and the two packets of seasoning are what we used. The crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and garlic amounts follow the recipe we started from, Spend With Pennies' "The Best Chili Recipe", which we changed as described above. The slow cooker and freezer bag versions follow this site's usual method and haven't been cooked as written, the same as the other recipes here.

More dinners like this are in the recipes, including a beef and bean chili made for the freezer. Ten of the freezer recipes are planned as one afternoon in The Freezer Session.