Beef & Three-Bean Chili Mix: Chili Night From One Quart Jar

When the evenings turn cold, I want chili at least once a week, and I don’t want to think about it. This jar is how I don’t have to. Three kinds of dried beans on the bottom, the whole spice blend on top, and the directions on the lid. On chili night I brown a pound or two of beef, tip the jar in with water, and let it simmer while I do something else. It makes eight bowls.

Why a jar instead of a packet

A chili seasoning packet covers the spices. This jar covers the beans too, so there’s nothing to remember at the store except the beef and the tomato juice.

• It keeps a long time. Dried beans and dried spices are some of the longest keepers in the pantry. The jar is at its best for about 12 months.
• No cans of beans. One quart jar replaces the cans you’d usually open, and dried beans cost a fraction as much.
• You control the heat. The book uses 2 tablespoons of chili powder, which is medium. Go up to 3 if your family likes it hotter.

How to cook it

1. Brown the beef. 2 lb ground beef in a large pot over medium-high heat, then drain the fat.
2. Add the jar and 6 cups of water. Everything goes in at once, beans and spices together.
3. Boil, then simmer. Bring it to a full rolling boil and let it boil for 10 minutes before you turn it down. Red kidney beans need that hard boil to be safe to eat; a slow cooker on low doesn’t get hot enough on its own. Then cover and simmer 1½–2 hours, until the beans are tender.
4. Tomato juice last. Add the 43.5 oz of tomato juice and simmer 15 minutes more.

The order matters. Acid from tomatoes keeps beans firm, so if the tomato juice goes in at the start, the beans can stay hard no matter how long they cook. Wait until they’re tender.

If the beans take longer

Dried beans don’t all cook at the same speed. Older beans and hard water both slow them down. If they’re still firm at 2 hours, keep simmering and add a splash of hot water if it gets thick. To shorten the cooking time, soak the beans overnight: lift the spice bag off first (that’s why a small bag on top is handy), cover the beans with water, then drain them in the morning and start from step 1.

What to write on the tag

This jar makes a good gift for a new neighbor or a busy family. The tag is the recipe for someone who doesn’t have the book:

“Brown 2 lb ground beef and drain. Add the jar and 6 cups water. Boil hard 10 minutes, then cover and simmer 1½–2 hours until the beans are tender. Add 43.5 oz tomato juice and simmer 15 minutes more. Serves 8.”

In my free gift-tag printable, this jar is half of the “Chili Night” set, paired with a cranberry-orange biscuit mix: dinner in a jar with warm biscuits on the side.

Easy changes

• Chunkier: use cubed beef chuck, browned in batches, instead of ground beef.
• Thicker or soupier: simmer uncovered at the end to thicken it, or loosen it with hot water or more tomato juice.
• Milder herbs: the book uses parsley. If you like cilantro, dried cilantro works in the same amount.

A note on salt and labels

The jar itself is modest on salt: about 356 mg of sodium per bowl from the spice blend. Tomato juice adds more, so pick a low-sodium tomato juice if you’re watching it. As written, the chili is gluten-free and dairy-free, but check your chili powder label, since a few blends contain wheat as an anti-caking agent.

The Dry Mix Pantry Cookbook has 25 soups and meals in a jar, including a black bean chili and rice jar for a meatless night, and three chili powder blends if you’d like to make the spice from scratch too.