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The kitchen table

Kitchen Table Chili

The pot I actually make, divided by three so you can test it against yours.

Medium-spicy, thick, kid-approved. It is not a competition chili and doesn’t want to be — it wants to be a bowl on a Tuesday with cheese melting into it. Every amount below is written per pound of beef. Turn the dial and the whole pot follows: cans, spoons, broth, bowls, and the size of pot you’ll need.

How much beef have you got?

1 lb
of 80/20 ground beef

What goes in

Tap a box as you buy it or set it out. It remembers.

The order of things

Eleven steps, about an hour, most of it standing still. The tags say which ones are hot, which are heavy enough to be worth sharing, and which can be done sitting down.

    Taste, then control

    This is the actual recipe. Find what it tastes like on the left, do the thing on the right, then stir, wait a minute and taste again. One change at a time. The three with a red edge are the ones I reach for every single time.

      Worth knowing