Bobby Flay’s Beef and Black Bean Chili
You've never had chili quite like this.
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If you’re going to turn to a celebrity chef for a great chili recipe, Bobby Flay is a natural choice. Known for Southwest cuisine with some flair, you’d expect him to know his way around chili and make it a little interesting. Well, guess what? That’s just what you get with his Beef and Black Bean Chili. Full of tender chunks of beef, smoky flavor, and hearty black beans, this is a chili not like any other.
We made this chili as a part of our Celebrity Chili Recipe Showdown. The showdown is a fun project where we take four celebrity recipes — some celebrity chefs, some not so much — cook them, and then taste and compare them to see how they stack up. This match-up included Bobby Flay, Miranda Lambert, Guy Fieri, and Brian Baumgartner (Kevin, from The Office). We ended up with four very different chilis!
What’s in Bobby Flay’s Beef and Black Bean Chili?
Well… some of the things are pretty obvious from the recipe name, but the full list is:
- Beef — Cut into cubes. He doesn’t specify what cut
- Red onion
- Garlic
- Ancho chili powder AND pasilla chili powder
- Cumin
- A bottle of dark beer
- Chicken stock
- Canned chopped tomatoes — he asks you to puree these
- Chipotle pepper puree
- Honey
- Black beans — Two cans
- Fresh lime juice
It’s not a terribly long list, but he does also include recipes for a cumin crema topping and an avocado relish, if you want to fancy things up a bit.
How Do You Make Bobby Flay’s Beef and Black Bean Chili?
There are a couple of interesting steps here. He has you drain a can of chopped tomatoes and then puree them. Why not use tomato sauce or tomato paste that’s already pureed? I assume flavor, though the difference isn’t probably all that noticeable. Likewise, if you can’t find chipotle puree, you’ll need to puree your own.
The rest is pretty standard:
Sear the beef in some olive oil, and then remove it from the pot while you cook down the aromatics. The chili powders and cumin go in next, along with the beer, which he advises you reduce “completely.” The beef and the rest of the ingredients (save for the beans) get added into the pot and then you just want to simmer it for forty-five minutes before you add the black beans and give it all fifteen minutes more on the stove. It’s not a terribly long time as far as chili goes!
How Does It Taste?
Fantastic.
It’s smoky, deep, and dark, which all gives it a molé-like quality despite having no chocolate involved. The beef is amazingly tender while the back beans add some chew and heartiness. We loved the layered flavor of this; it really evolves in your mouth as you chew and the pasilla and ancho chili powders really add more nuance than just using “basic” chili powder.
The only downside we could see is that if you’re looking for traditional chili, this isn’t quite it. It’s chili with a little twist, a little flair… and to be fair, that’s just what you’d expect from Bobby Flay.
We made this as part of our Celebrity Recipe Showdown.
To see how it stacked up, read on here:
Celebrity Chili Recipe Showdown
You can see the other celebrity Chili recipes here:
Miranda Lambert’s Famous Chili
Brian Baumgartner’s Seriously Good Chili (From The Office)
Guy Fieri’s Texas Chili
Bobby Flay's Beef and Black Bean Chili
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 lbs beef, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 large red onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
- 1 tablespoon pasilla chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 bottle dark beer
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 1 (16 oz) can chopped tomatoes, drained and pureed
- 1 tablespoon chipotle pepper puree
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 cups black beans (cooked or canned), rinsed and drained
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
For the toasted cumin cream:
- 1 tablespoon cumin seed
- 1 cup Mexican crema or creme fraiche
For the avocado relish:
- 2 ripe Haas avocados, peeled, pitted, and diced
- 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
- 1 jalapeno or serrano chile, finely diced
- Lime juice
- Fresh cilantro, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- In a large Dutch oven over high heat, heat the oil. Season beef with salt and pepper, then sauté until brown on all sides. Remove meat to a plate and set aside. Remove all but 3 tablespoons of fat from the pot.
- Add onions to pot and cook until soft. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes.
- Stir in ancho powder, pasilla powder, and cumin and cook 2 minutes more. Add beer and cook until completely reduced.
- Return beef to pot, then add chicken stock, tomatoes, chipotle puree, and honey, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium, cover pan, and let simmer 45 minutes.
- Add beans and cook 15 minutes more.
- Remove from heat, stir in lime juice and season to taste. Serve topped with avocado relish and cumin crema.
- For the cumin crema:
- Place cumin in a small sauté pan over medium heat and toast until lightly golden. Place into a small bowl, stir in crema, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- For the avocado relish:
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Recipe from Bobby Flay.