Double Beef Chili: The Game Day Chili Series

The Game Day Chili Series continues with beef chili, but this one goes a little further than the standard ground beef, beans, tomatoes, and chili powder. It starts a few hours earlier with homemade beef broth made from beef shank, onion and pepper scraps, garlic, and spices.

That gives us two things for the chili: a rich homemade beef broth and a beef shank that's been braising in it for three to four hours. Pull that beef apart and combine it with browned ground beef, black and pinto beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and corn, and you've got a chili with a lot more beef flavor and texture than the usual one-pot version.

That's what the Gameday Chili Series is about. Each week during football season, we're taking chili in a slightly different direction. This one is unapologetically beefy, with homemade broth, shredded beef shank, and ground beef all working together in the same pot.

Ingredients

For the Beef

• 1 pound ground beef

• Braised beef shank from the homemade beef broth

  
  

For the Chili

• 1 large onion or 2 medium onions, diced

• 1 bell pepper, diced

• 2 jalapeño, diced

• 1 cup corn

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 can diced tomatoes

• Homemade beef shank broth, as needed

• 1 tablespoon chili powder, plus more to taste

• 1 teaspoon paprika, plus more to taste

• Cayenne pepper, to taste

• Salt, to taste

• Black pepper, to taste

  
  

Before You Start

This chili really starts with the homemade beef broth. The beef shank simmers for three to four hours with onion and pepper scraps, garlic, chili powder, paprika, and chili flakes. By the time the broth is finished, the liquid has picked up plenty of beef flavor and the shank itself is tender enough to pull apart.

Save both. The broth becomes the liquid for the chili, while the braised shank gets shredded and added alongside the ground beef. That's what separates this from a standard ground beef chili. You get the browned flavor and texture of ground beef along with larger pieces of slow-cooked beef throughout the pot.

Start with less broth than you think you'll need. You can always add more as the chili cooks, but if you add too much at the beginning, you're going to spend a lot longer waiting for it to reduce.

Directions:

1. Brown the Ground Beef

• Add the ground beef to a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

• Break the beef into pieces and let it develop some real browning before moving it around too much. You're looking for browned beef with some crispy edges rather than steamed gray crumbles.

• Once the beef is cooked, remove excess grease if necessary, leaving enough behind to cook the vegetables.

  
  

2. Cook the Vegetables

• Add the diced onion, bell pepper, and jalapeño to the pot with the ground beef.

• Cook until the onion begins to soften and the peppers start becoming tender.

• Add the corn and continue cooking for another few minutes.

  
  

3. Season the Chili

• Add the chili powder, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper.

• Stir everything together and let the spices cook briefly with the beef and vegetables.

• Don't worry about getting the seasoning perfect yet. You'll have another chance to taste and adjust once the broth, tomatoes, beans, and beef shank are in the pot.

  
  

4. Add the Tomatoes and Beans

• Add the diced tomatoes, black beans, and pinto beans.

• Stir everything together until evenly combined.

  
  

5. Add the Beef Broth

• Pour in enough homemade beef shank broth to bring everything together.

• Don't dump in a huge amount immediately. Start with enough to give the chili some liquid and add more as necessary.

• Stir well and scrape the bottom of the pot to work any browned bits back into the chili.

  
  

6. Add the Braised Beef Shank

• Add the shredded beef shank from the homemade broth.

• Keep some of the pieces relatively large rather than completely shredding everything. You want to notice the difference between the tender braised beef and the ground beef when you're eating the chili.

• Stir gently to distribute the shank throughout the pot.

  
  

7. Simmer the Chili

• Bring the chili to a gentle simmer.

• Let everything cook together until the vegetables are tender and the chili has thickened to your preferred consistency.

• Stir occasionally and add additional beef broth if the chili becomes thicker than you want.

• Taste as it cooks and adjust the chili powder, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper as needed.

  
  

For Serving

• Shredded cheddar cheese

• Sour cream

• Sliced green onions

• Fresh or pickled jalapeños

• Tortilla chips

• Cornbread

  
  

Final Take

There are easier ways to make beef chili. You could open a carton of beef broth, brown some ground beef, dump everything into a pot, and have a perfectly respectable chili.

But making the broth from beef shank gives you something the shortcut version doesn't. The shank spends hours flavoring the broth, then that same tender beef goes right back into the chili alongside the ground beef.

Add onions, peppers, jalapeño, corn, tomatoes, black beans, pinto beans, and plenty of chili seasoning, and you've got a hearty beef chili built for a Sunday of football.

The homemade broth takes a little extra time, but most of that time is just letting a pot simmer. In return, you get the liquid for the chili and a second cut of beef at the same time. That's a pretty solid trade, and another stop in the Gameday Chili Series.

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