The Specific Ground Beef That Gives You Better Chili

A cozy bowl of chili is perfect for a cold night, but this slow-simmered dish also fares well at backyard barbecues or potluck parties. A homemade batch of chili is the best way to do it because you get to control everything from the ingredients to the thickness and even the texture of the meat. That last one is the most important part to get right because the meat — usually ground beef, though you can use ground turkey or chicken — should be the standout ingredient of the dish. For the best chili, you want to use coarsely ground beef.

The meat in a chili dish should always be able to hold up when compared to the other ingredients. If you're adding things like beans, chopped onions, and peppers, then the meat could get lost if it's ground too finely. Plus, the chili will have a thinner, more soup-like texture if the meat is ground into tiny bits. You can buy pre-ground meat from the grocery store, but it's worth it to talk to your butcher about grinding a special cut, so you can also control the fat content and flavor.

If you're grinding your own meat at home, pay attention to the settings. Most meat grinders have controls that allow you to determine how fine or coarse you want your meat to be. The Cheffano meat grinder, for example, has three grinding plate sizes between 2 and 7 millimeters, so for the coarsest grind, you want to choose the largest number because that offers the biggest gap for the meat to come through, creating chunky pieces.

Whether you grind your own meat or buy it at the grocery store, once the meat is cooking, make sure you don't break it up too much with a fork or other tool as it cooks. You want the meat to remain coarse, and though you should stir it around to ensure it browns on all sides, you don't want to overmix, or those pieces could break up. Finally, chop your additional ingredients to be comparable in size and texture to your meat. The magic of chili, in part, is due to its balance, so you'll want each spoonful to have ingredients that are similar in size and don't overpower each other.