How many variations of chili do you think are possible? Maybe infinite variations since all you have to do is tweak the ingredients just slightly and you've got something new and delicious.

Chili is one of my favorite cool weather meals, a hearty meal that is warming and filling. If you make it spicy hot, it even helps clear your sinuses. 😉  Previously My Husband's Best Chili was my go to favorite, but I think this one is my new favorite.

This recipe uses my Easy Delicious Creamy Crock-Pot Navy Beans so you'll want to prepare them a couple of days prior to making this chili. What I like to do is make the crock pot beans and then divide them up into 4-5 cup portions and freeze. That way I'm a step ahead of myself when I get a craving for chili. This chili would also be perfect garnished with my Lime Guacamole.

I've used commercial chili seasoning mixtures for many years, but recently I wanted to try making my own. I found that two spices were important to making chili powder [affiliate link]: paprika and ancho chili pepper. I ordered a pound of each and have been testing them out. One thing I have noticed recently is that ground peppers will absorb quite a bit of liquids. So if you are trying to thicken a sauce, adding ground peppers is one way to do that.

Spicy Ancho Beef Chili

• 2 tablespoons butter or bacon grease
• 1 large onion (mine weighed 13 ounces), diced
• 2 large bell peppers, diced
• 3 pounds ground beef
• 2 cups water
• 4 cups Easy Delicious Creamy Crock-Pot Navy Beans
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder [affiliate link]
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 3 tablespoons ground paprika
• 2 teaspoons sea salt [affiliate link]
• 2 tablespoons ground Ancho chili pepper green onions [affiliate link], optional garnish
• thinly sliced lettuce, optional
• garnishsliced tomatoes, optional garnish
• sliced black olives, optional garnish
• Lime Guacamole, optional

Melt fat in a large pot. Add diced onions and bell peppers into the pot. Cook for 10 minutes.

Add ground beef. Cook until browned and the peppers and onions are tender.

Add water and navy beans. Cook for 20 minutes.

Add garlic, onion, cumin, paprika and salt. Mix and taste. Add more salt.

I was happy with 2 tablespoons of the ground Ancho chili powder. I've also made this recipe with 3 tablespoons. It was pretty spicy with 2 and even more so with 3 so if you do not like your chili hot with spice, add a small amount of Ancho chili powder – you might want to start with 1 teaspoon and move up from there, taste testing as you add more.

If you want to continue heating the chili, be very careful that you stir it often as it will begin to stick and the part that is sticking will eventually scorch or burn. Lately I've been moving the chili to my crock pot turned to low to allow it to cook a little longer so that the flavors can marry but it's not necessary to do that. I just really like it because I don't have to worry about accidentally burning the chili (again). 😉

Do you have a favorite chili? Share with me in the comments!