Chilli con Carne

Chilli con Carne is easy, cheap and filling. The best thing about it is, that, as long as you have some mince and a jar of chilli sauce, you can knock a batch out from almost any leftovers you have knocking about the kitchen.

There are many ways to make chilli; this is just one of them, and the one I've personally found to be the most delicious. I customized it after watching a friend make it and then forgetting most of the ingredients, so it may be a little unorthodox (I always get told off for not buying a separate tin of kidney beans or for draining the bean juice from the beans). Most of the ingredients are exchangeable according to taste; in face, probably the only one completely necessary is the chilli sauce, and there are many varieties of that.

One last thing: I am English, and, contrary to popular belief, we don't stoically follow the metric system; the measurement systems used as usually a mixture of metric and imperial. So I'm sorry if the recipes get confusing, but it should be pretty easy to convert measurements.


On with the actual recipe!

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Minced beef, 500g
Chilli sauce, 500g (about 1 jar)
Red onion, 1 half
Baked beans in tomato sauce, 200g (about half a tin) (student tip: I'm usually fussy and only buy brand-name beans like Heinz, but in chilli you can't really taste the beans, so don't worry about using a cheap own-brand)
Sweetcorn, 150g (one small tin)

1. Firstly, prepare the half-onion by cutting it into small chunks about 2cm long.

2. Put the beef in the frying pan and cook until it's nearly all brown

3. Add the chopped onion to the beef and fry them together until the beef is completely brown - you could probably add the onions later with the other ingredients but I just love the smell of frying onions!

4. Once cooked, pour the beef and onions into a large saucepan.

5. Open the tin of baked beans and drain out the tomato juice (I find if that if you don't, it makes the chilli too sloppy).

6. Drain the sweetcorn, if need be (i.e. if they're in water)

7. Pour the sweetcorn, baked beans and chilli sauce in the saucepan and stir all ingredients til they're mixed together.

8. Cook the mixture together over the hob on a medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring regularly to avoid it getting stuck to the bottom.

9. Finally, pour the chilli onto two plates and serve!

You can eat chilli on it's own or with rice or bread (my personal favourite is naan bread).

I'm going to make this again tomorrow so I'll try and remember to take some pictures to whet your appetites! :)

-- Natla

[ETA] I've added more exact measurements and edited the recipe a little for clarity. Picture coming soon!