Poll: is it chili if it has no meat?

[Frosty Boolit]

My wife made a "chili" without meat and I asked her where the meat was. She said it was vegetable chili to which I replied that there is no such thing. I told her it was a bean soup or stew because it isn't chili if there is no meat. I understand vegetarians will want to make substitutions for meat and still call it chili, which to me reinforces the idea that chili must contain meat. Help me out here fellers. I just know she's wrong😂

[Winger Ed.]

This is blasphemy !!

We are predators. That's why our teeth are designed to rip the flesh from other animals.

Burn the witch!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

The official name is: chili con carne. That translates to chili with meat. Therefore, chili refers to the chili pepper seasoning, and carne is the meat. So, although I voted that it should have meat, technically speaking one can have a meatless chili. But, it should be illegal. Now to get a real argument going, one has to ask if chili should have beans.

DG

[BLAHUT]

Yes; otherwise its just soup. Meat and gravy..

[Bull]

Chili has to have meat it can be beef, elk or venison (no chicken). Beans are just put in if you don’t hunt and cannot afford much meat. But you still have to have meat.

[foesgth]

Chili doesn't need meat, unless you want someone to eat it. Spicy bean soup might not be bad but it isn't chili con carne.

[gc45]

Both meant and beans or it ain't chili I would eat..My Wife makes great chili using whatever wild meat we have at the time. We dropped beef in 1995 and have felt much better for that.

[TJBCS]

Chile (chili is anglicized) refers to the chile peppers and can make a soup/gravy all by itself, so you cna put in whatever you want. That being said, it all depends where you are from and what has been deemed holy! Haha. Being from south Texas, meaning it is Tex-Mex chili, most purists will tell you it is beef, maybe some pork, onion, garlic and chile and nothing else! No beans and certainly not red beans or kidney beans. Pinto beans are what the natives like!

[Texas by God]

I just took some ground venison out of the freezer and there’s 5 alarm and Rotel tomatoes in the pantry, Enablers[emoji3]


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[rockrat]

I have 5 quart freezer bags of my chili ageing in the freezer. Seems like the flavors meld together after a couple of months. I take two days to make the stuff , second day is just simmering it.

[abunaitoo]

Only a woke would say chili has no meat.
It's like those Meatless hamburgers.
No meat, how can it be a hamburger????

[elmacgyver0]

Only a woke would say chili has no meat.
It's like those Meatless hamburgers.
No meat, how can it be a hamburger????

It's your wife, you had better figure out how you are going to get along with her.
I am almost 72, I learned you have better like everything your wife cooks, whether you like it or not.
To add to that, you better be prompt to the table.
In my early days of marriage, I was watching a Charles Bronson movie I had never even known existed.
My wife called me to supper (that's dinner to city folk) I was so ingrossed in the movie I didn't come to the table quite as fast as my wife expected me to.
I will never forget a scalding hot roast chicken flying across the room at me, the flight of the Phoenix.
Something I will never forget, I learned my lesson.

[DougGuy]

In Texas they tell me chili doesn't have beans, it's just meat and well, gravy would that be correct? Without meat, it is NOT chili.

Heh this whole thread needs purple!

[elmacgyver0]

In Texas they tell me chili doesn't have beans, it's just meat and well, gravy would that be correct? Without meat, it is NOT chili.

Heh this whole thread needs purple!

Please, just leave chickens out of it!

[36g]

The cure for that is to learn to cook. That way you can make what you want, when you want it, and how you want it.

[poorman]

I told her it was a bean soup or stew because it isn't chili if there is no meat.
Its not soup or stew either if it has no meat.

[Kosh75287]

No meat = No Chili. But I'm also a purist about beans. No beans in my chili (except back in college, when we threw everything in it).

[SSGOldfart]

Chili doesn't need meat, unless you want someone to eat it. Spicy bean soup might not be bad but it isn't chili con carne.

I agree we need meat,even hotdog chilli has meat.So if your eating chilli without meat you have spicy tomato sauce with Beans

[Winger Ed.]

gravy would that be correct? Without meat, it is NOT chili.

Gravy is a glorified version of flour and water.

The liquid part of chili would be more along the lines of a sauce.

[Polymath]

A woman I used to know made chili with soya bean curd. I ate it because I was polite and visiting her home, but brother, you could tell it warn't real chili. Chili-con-carne means chili with beef.

[HWooldridge]

I grew up in San Antonio - chili was invented there. The basic recipe is ground or cubed meat with red chile peppers, salt, black pepper and a little garlic - nothing else. I add a can of Rotel tomatoes and roasted jalapeños but that’s just me.

With regard to beans, most of the Hispanics I know will tell you to make all of the side dishes separately then serve. That means a pot of chili, a pot of beans and a pot of rice on the stove - but they don’t get mixed until in your belly.

I’m getting hungry, might be time to make a batch.

[stubshaft]

Chili = MEAT! and NO BEANS!

[Txcowboy52]

Chilli ain’t chilli without meat ! No way no how !

[Dekota56]

I have ate Chili that my mother in-law called it with out meat… didn’t care for it, at all.
But I told her it was good.
Now as far as my wife’s cooking, my father told me the dad I got married. He said if my wife made anything you don’t like, you better tell her you don’t like it or else you will eat it the rest of your life..

[jimlj]

I got threatened with fire ants last time I got involved with a chili discussion. i think it requires meat, but no comment on any other ingredients.

[BLAHUT]

No meat = No Chili. But I'm also a purist about beans. No beans in my chili (except back in college, when we threw everything in it).

Gota have beans in it, try filling up, 4 growing boys with gravy and a little meat ???

[Walks]

I grew up eating it both ways. Been eating it for 65yrs so far. When I make it myself it has beans, 'cause that was Dad's recipe. Just can't seem to convert the recipe to no beans. Never comes out right.
I buy Wolf brand Chili NO MEAT for Chili dogs and burgers.

Anybody that puts kidney beans in Chili should be keel hauled, TWICE. Probably new yorkers,
they ruin everything.

[Bored1]

If it doesn't have stewed tomatoes, I am HAPPY AS CAN BE!!! Don't care if it's got beans, meat, chicken, happens to be white somehow. Keep the chunky cooked tomatoes out of it and I'll eat it and be happy.

[barnabus]

It's your wife, you had better figure out how you are going to get along with her.
I am almost 72, I learned you have better like everything your wife cooks, whether you like it or not.
To add to that, you better be prompt to the table.
In my early days of marriage, I was watching a Charles Bronson movie I had never even known existed.
My wife called me to supper (that's dinner to city folk) I was so ingrossed in the movie I didn't come to the table quite as fast as my wife expected me to.
I will never forget a scalding hot roast chicken flying across the room at me, the flight of the Phoenix.
Something I will never forget, I learned my lesson.

Better like everything she cooks and scamper to the table at a bellowing call?you might as well hand in your man card cuz your a wuss! lol

[elmacgyver0]

Better like everything she cooks and scamper to the table at a bellowing call?you might as well hand in your man card cuz your a wuss! lol

Well, I guess you should know. LOL

It is a give and take thing.
At one point she told me I had to get rid of my guns.
I told her she knew I had them when we got married.
So, if she didn't like it, not to let the door hit her in the butt on the way out.

[waksupi]

Chile (chili is anglicized) refers to the chile peppers and can make a soup/gravy all by itself, so you cna put in whatever you want. That being said, it all depends where you are from and what has been deemed holy! Haha. Being from south Texas, meaning it is Tex-Mex chili, most purists will tell you it is beef, maybe some pork, onion, garlic and chile and nothing else! No beans and certainly not red beans or kidney beans. Pinto beans are what the natives like!

What, no cabrito in the chili?

[white eagle]

Chili without meat?
no way Jose
all I call that is chili sauce

[buckwheatpaul]

To my way of thinking it is vegetable soup....absolutely nothing wrong with that especially if ya got some cornbread to go with it!

[Rapier]

I ordered cabrito in Argentina, just once, a fellow hunter told me it was great, as a joke. I am not a real fan of goat in any fashion, born or unborn.

Chili needs both the meat and the beans in my cooking. Washed beans added in the cooking of chili thickens the chili, as they simmer in the chili. I add Thai peppers after I cook the chil just to my bowl only.

[nicholst55]

The proper name of the dish is chili con carne (chilis with meat). How can it be chili without carne?

[MaryB]

I agree we need meat,even hotdog chilli has meat.So if your eating chilli without meat you have spicy tomato sauce with Beans

tomato? In real chili? HEATHEN!

[MaryB]

Texas Red aka the real deal chili

Hand chopped chuck, pieces about the size of you little fingernail
Chopped onion
Chopped garlic
mild chili powder(1/4 cup per pound of meat, can cut back for wimps)
hot chili powder(to taste)
beef base(better than bullion, to taste, adds salt)
Beer just to cover

Brown meat in bacon fat with the onion, add garlic towards the end to not burn it, add mild chili powder and stir until fragrant(this is key, it releases the oils in the chili powder), add beer, beef base and cover and let simmer until meat is tender. Add hot chili powder anytime from 15 minutes before done to right at the end, longer you wait the rawer the pepper flavor will be. Can skip this for heat wimps!

no veggies, no beans, no tomato... chili made the way the chuck wagon cook would have on the trail.

[Shawlerbrook]

Chili needs meat, Period !

[ulav8r]

It should meat with no beans, but my wife usually adds beans to stretch it. She often mashes the beans so they aren't seen as easily, but if properly seasoned the beans can't be tasted. She also once made a pot of 15 bean soup and called it soup, but it tasted like chili.

[farmbif]

the question should be, what is the best cut of meat and the best way to cut it up for chili.

[Wag]

Real chili ain't got no beans and it better have meat that ain't ground meat. That's what real men eat.

--Wag--

[William Yanda]

Chili-no meat
Chili con carne-Chili WITH meat
all thanks to high school spanish, over half a century ago.

[quilbilly]

Chili ain't right if it doesn't have both meat and kidney beans. Buffalo is my favorite followed by bear as ground meat for the pot.

[Bigslug]

I would answer your question with another question: Is it FOOD if it has no meat?:mrgreen:

[Frosty Boolit]

You're a meatatarian!

[Cast10]

In this cold wet weather, we had a pot yesterday. Here in Texas we eat it with and without beans. Growing up, beans were added to fill us boys up. Yesterday’s pot was without. BUT, being born in Texas with Louisiana heritage, WHITE RICE is always prepared separately with a pot of chili in our home.

BTW, I’m still burping that succulent venison chili! Warms you to the soul.

[brassrat]

I thought chili had tomato sauce. Mine is, long cooked, sauce. Really long cooked. I use real beef rib pieces and several types of peppers and a couple type of beans. I claim it is the best but no one likes it in a couple, crooked, VFW contests.309887

[gwpercle]

If you eating Chili at my house ... and I had anything to do with it ...
it will have Tomatoes , Tomato Sauce and Meat in it .
The meat may be any one of several but there will be meat .

Chile without meat is a Vegetable Stew .

Gary

[Winger Ed.]

A woman I used to know made chili with soya bean curd.

Apparently you made a good call on that one.


While visiting the first set of in-laws up in Baltimore, 'to make me feel more at home'-- the (then) mother in law made chili.

Oh gosh..... bad isn't good enough of a word to describe it.
I call it Yankee chili. The best recipe for it I reverse engineered was:

1 large can of grocery store spaghetti sauce.
1 package of grocery store hot dogs cut into 1" pieces.

Combine, add 3 of the sauce cans of water, and heat on the stove, but do not boil it.

[huntinlever]

Well, for me, gotta have the meat. Best recent recipe I used - really simple but the spices are spot on, "Cowboy Chili," by Kent Rollins. https://kentrollins.com/cowboy-chili/

Note his opening line is:


So there’s a great debate out on chili… beans or no beans?

We’ll I say you go ahead and throw whatever you like in them beans! For me, I’m sure going to put them in because I grew up on beans and they give chili a good heartiness.

Meat's not even a question, beans are, for this old cowboy! Just picked up one of his books, A Taste of Cowboy. Real deal - longstanding working chuckwagon cook.

Former chef - for me stews and braised meats are where it's at. Give me Chili Verde with pork shoulder (shoulder from any animal, actually) anytime and I'm good.

[Slugster]

Took a couple of years to get my wife to stop putting spaghetti in the chili. Was how schools around here made chili. And yes, chili needs venison, beef, dead horse, or some kind of meat in it. Just not right without it.

[NSB]

McDonalds calls them hamburgers….

[huntinlever]

Apparently you made a good call on that one.


While visiting the first set of in-laws up in Baltimore, 'to make me feel more at home'-- the (then) mother in law made chili.

Oh gosh..... bad isn't good enough of a word to describe it.
I call it Yankee chili. The best recipe for it I reverse engineered was:

1 large can of grocery store spaghetti sauce.
1 package of grocery store hot dogs cut into 1" pieces.

Combine, add 3 of the sauce cans of water, and heat on the stove, but do not boil it.

Oh. Lord.

[gwpercle]

Well, for me, gotta have the meat. Best recent recipe I used - really simple but the spices are spot on, "Cowboy Chili," by Kent Rollins. https://kentrollins.com/cowboy-chili/

Note his opening line is:



Meat's not even a question, beans are, for this old cowboy! Just picked up one of his books, A Taste of Cowboy. Real deal - longstanding working chuckwagon cook.

Former chef - for me stews and braised meats are where it's at. Give me Chili Verde with pork shoulder (shoulder from any animal, actually) anytime and I'm good.

Thank's Huntinlever for posting chili recipe link ... I'm always on the lookout for that "Perfect" recipe , and had just bought 2.3 lbs of beef - Carne Picada (extra fine) with the idea of making chili but wanted to try a "new " recipe ... I sit down at computer and Wah-Lah (Voila') there's your chile recipe begging me to try it out ...hit a couple buttons and Print Recipe !
you must be psychic ... Thanks :drinks:
Gary

[GregLaROCHE]

Of course it needs meat. The beans are only there to conserve meat.

[huntinlever]

Thank's Huntinlever for posting chili recipe link ... I'm always on the lookout for that "Perfect" recipe , and had just bought 2.3 lbs of beef - Carne Picada (extra fine) with the idea of making chili but wanted to try a "new " recipe ... I sit down at computer and Wah-Lah (Voila') there's your chile recipe begging me to try it out ...hit a couple buttons and Print Recipe !
you must be psychic ... Thanks :drinks:
Gary

Hope it was good chow!

[Char-Gar]

The full name of that dish is "Chili Con Carne" (Peppers With Meat) for Pete's sake.

[Good Cheer]

Just use lots of chile peppers in your cooking and the carne thing will sort itself out.

[Outpost75]

Chili ain't right if it doesn't have both meat and kidney beans. Buffalo is my favorite followed by bear as ground meat for the pot.

Heathen! Bad enough to have beans, but if you need to stretch the pot for a crowd they better be pintos refritos stirred in to thicken, but to hide them otherwise you should be ashamed! Dog or hog meat are permitted if you have no venison or beef. Never chicken! arroz con pollo can be served on the side.

[trapper9260]

I put ground beaver in my when I make it, chili is with meat no matter how it is done.

[Outpost75]

I put ground beaver in my when I make it, chili is with meat no matter how it is done.

Beaver would be good. I've had it with "Cajun chicken" aka nutria.

[gbrown]

Chili without meat is not chili, just a good enchilada sauce. I use a chili w/o the packaged mix, just use 3 tbs of chili, 1 tbs garlic pdw, 1 tsp cumin, onions, bell peppers, and a small can of mild rotel. I also use 1-1/2 pounds of meat. My wife can't take any heat. My bowl has about a heaping tsp in it.

[gwpercle]

Beaver would be good. I've had it with "Cajun chicken" aka nutria.

I was just going to suggest that if you didn't have a beaver a nice Nutria makes a a good chili .

Save the tail and get your $6.00 bounty ... it's a Win - Win situation .

How you know about Nutria and Cajun eating ... Louisiana boy by birth or by marriage or maybe you come in the back door ?
Us Cajuns got to stick together !
Gary

[GRem]

Meat has to be in it

[Outpost75]

I was just going to suggest that if you didn't have a beaver a nice Nutria makes a a good chili .

Save the tail and get your $6.00 bounty ... it's a Win - Win situation .

How you know about Nutria and Cajun eating ... Louisiana boy by birth or by marriage or maybe you come in the back door ?
Us Cajuns got to stick together !
Gary

A buddy in my unit was Cajun-French and introduced me to mud bugs, and such. He made sure I passed a check-ride making red beans and rice as part of my survival training. Found out later you could do Asian cane rats the same way and with enough Tabasco and garlic nobody knew!

[fatnhappy]

310051

Gotta have cornbread too

[David2011]

Chili contest rules state that the only thing recognizable in the chili is to be the meat. I think that narrows it down pretty well. Chili contest cooks use powdered everything- onion, chili powder, garlic and all of the other seasonings.

[gwpercle]

A buddy in my unit was Cajun-French and introduced me to mud bugs, and such. He made sure I passed a check-ride making red beans and rice as part of my survival training. Found out later you could do Asian cane rats the same way and with enough Tabasco and garlic nobody knew!

Awesome story !
Mud-bugs , red beans & rice , nutria , cane rats ( and squirrels) Tabasco , garlic ...all that makes you Cajun at heart ... Your Buddy did it , the Cajun rubs off ... you get it on you and it hard to wash off .
Thanks ,
Gary

[Cast10]

@fatnhappy +1000 on the cownbred!

[GregLaROCHE]

Chili without meat is not chili. It’s just beans!

[Winger Ed.]

Chili without meat is not chili. It’s just beans!

Or just weird tasting spaghetti sauce.

[challenger_i]

Chili? No red meat? Are you KIDDING??? Don't care how poor ya are! There's rabbits n squirrels out there!

[shooterg]

You Texas guys can have just meat . Here I'm liable to toss 3 different kinds of beans in it with LOTS of meat with mucho hot peppers . And top off with chopped onions/yellow relish, and oyster crackers. Call it what ya want but I won't die hungry !

[Winger Ed.]

You Texas guys can have just meat . Here I'm liable to toss 3 different kinds of beans in it

Here:
After I was burned at the stake--
I'd be afraid I might lose my place in Heaven if I did that.

[beemer]

310051

Gotta have cornbread too

You just had to post that picture didn't ya, wife saw it. Now I have to make a batch of my own, with along with a pan of cornbread of course.

Dave