Different people have very strong opinions about what chili should or shouldn’t be but all those opinions really boil down to one fact — people love their chili! There are so many different styles and recipes out there, we wanted to try some new ones out for ourselves. We chose four celebrity chili recipes — each with their own unique techniques and ingredients — and put them to the test. Read on to see if we found the ultimate one!
The Contenders:
We chose Chili recipes from four different celebrities — some chefs, some not so much.
Bobby Flay
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.
Miranda Lambert
She’s a country star but she also has a bestselling cookbook and is a native Texan… Can she make a great chili?
Guy Fieri
Guy Fieri is known for keeping things pretty fiery and pretty fun. So why wouldn’t you want to turn to him for a great chili recipe? Those are definitely qualities you want in your chili! A little kick and some fun flavor.
Brian Baumgartner (Kevin, from The Office)
Kevin’s chili scene from The Office lives in our hearts and minds forever and had us wondering… just how good was that chili?
How We Tested:
We had two chefs (Kristy and Dom) take two recipes each and make them side by side in the studio. (These are some of our favorite days at work!) We stayed true to the original recipes, not changing a thing, and then tasted them all.
The Chilis:
Bobby Flay
Bobby’s chili has black beans and cubes of tender beef, as well as ancho and pasilla chili powders, chiptole puree, some honey, dark beer, and red onion. It’s a reasonably quick chili that simmers for about an hour.
How does it taste? 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.
Get the full recipe here: Bobby Flay’s Black Bean Chili
Miranda Lambert
Miranda calls for ground beef AND ground chuck, as well as diced tomatoes AND diced tomatoes and green chiles, a white onion AND a yellow onion, a dash of Tabasco, cumin, chili powder, and a can of pinto beans, if you feel so inclined. She has you simmer that all for FOUR hours, which seemed a little excessive to us.
How does it taste? This is a chili you’d be totally happy to be served, and it’s what you think of when you think of chili, but it didn’t really bring anything extra. There wasn’t the nuanced, deep flavor of some of the other chilis we tried and it lacked spice completely. It was a basic chili, but nothing to be mad at. However! Miranda’s topping suggestions really leveled it up. The combo of the Fritos, onions, sour cream, cheese, and her chili was stupendous. You put it all together and it works beautifully.
Get the full recipe here: Miranda Lambert’s Famous Chili
Guy Fieri
Guy uses plenty of fresh and dried chilies and peppers. There’s ancho chilies, chilies de arbol, guajillo chilies, and fresno chilies. Two each. There’s red bell pepper and Anaheim peppers. He uses two kind of meat, which is interesting, both chuck roast and ground beef. To simmer it all together, he calls for beef stock and a bottle of amber beer, flavored with some cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and paprika. He uses masa harina at the end as a thickener.
It’s great! We loved the layered flavor of all those chilies, and surprisingly, it wasn’t too spicy, it was just right. The addition of the cinnamon detracted from the rest of the flavor for us — it takes out of all that lovely smoky flavor. We also really loved the two kinds of beef, which we didn’t expect. It’s a really nice texture to have both tender shredded beef and minced beef. Overall, a really great chili that we’d absolutely borrow some techniques from in the future.
Get the full recipe here: Guy Fieri’s Texas Chili
Brian Baumgartner (Kevin, from The Office
Brian uses two pounds of ground beef, cooked down with onion, bell pepper, and garlic. There’s tomato paste, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and some water, some chili powder and ancho chili powder and two cans of Bush’s beans in chili sauce (one pinto, one kidney). All told, it simmers for just under an hour.
How does it taste? It was very good, but we couldn’t quite agree on how good it was! The flavor is really nice, but Kristy found it to be too tomatoey and a little too sweet. Dom, on the other hand, found it to be exactly the classic chili flavor you want and expect when you think of chili. It’s balanced in what it brings, for sure, it just depends on what you’re looking for out of chili.
Get the full recipe here: Brian Baumgartner’s Seriously Good Chili (From The Office)
The Final Verdict:
So, who won it all?!
No One!
This is the first time we couldn’t come to a consensus on which recipe we loved the best! Dom loved Brian Baumgartner’s for its classic chili flavor. Kristy liked Bobby Flay’s without its toppings for its smoky, nuanced flavor but liked Miranda Lambert’s better with the toppings. And we both loved the ground and shredded beef combo of Guy Fieri’s. That’s all to say — they all had wonderful qualities and if we borrowed our favorite things from each of them, we think we could make the perfect chili!
See some of our other Celebrity Recipe Showdowns here:
Celebrity Macaroni Salad Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Brownie Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Stuffing Recipe Showdown