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Sunday chili that freezes right
by Emma · Boise, ID
Built specifically to survive the freezer — no dairy, no pasta, nothing that turns to mush at week three.
- Total time1 hour 30 minutes
- Serves8, or 4 with leftovers frozen
- PostedJuly 20, 2026
Ingredients
- 2 lb ground beef or turkey
- 2 yellow onions, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (15 oz) cans kidney or pinto beans, drained
- 1 cup beef or chicken stock
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Brown the meat hard in a wide pot over medium-high, breaking it up but letting it sit long enough to actually crust. Salt it as it goes. Scoop it out with a slotted spoon and leave the fat.
- Cook the onions in that fat with a pinch of salt until soft and just starting to color, 8 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, paprika, cumin, and tomato paste and stir constantly for 60 seconds — the spices need the fat and the heat to stop tasting dusty.
- Return the meat, add the tomatoes, beans, and stock. Bring to a simmer, then drop the heat to low and leave it, lid ajar, for at least an hour. Two is better.
- Stir in the vinegar off the heat. Taste for salt. It should be a little sharper than you think it wants to be — freezing dulls it.
- Cool completely before packing, and leave a half inch of headroom in each container. Freezes well for three months.