Chili Has No Need for Beans

Today I am coming at you with a semi hot take on food. I have done this from time to time on the site and have gotten a little bit of a reaction from some people online and in my home. My hot take for the day today is, chili is better with no beans in it.

I have felt this way for quite some time, but the chili that I made for dinner last night, and finished for lunch today, made me fully realize this. I know there are other people in my family who feel the same way, namely my dad. He has actually said this for a while now. He will change his order if the place we are ordering from has beans in the chili. And there are a very few chilis out there with beans that are good, most notably the veggie chili at the excellent local diner Morning Glory. But I feel like it is a fact that all meat chili is the way to go.

The chili I made yesterday has no beans because it is low carb, and I try to eat as low carb as possible for my three meals a day. And it is a pretty simple chili to make. It has 2 1/2 lbs of ground beef, a red onion, celery, jalapenos and all the other seasonings that go into your regular chili. But instead of straight up chili powder I used chipotle chili powder. I also put the chili in the crockpot after browning the beef and let all the veggies and seasonings and meat marinade for eight hours. It made for an excellent tasting chili goop. It almost had more of a sloppy joe feel than a chili. But damn if it wasn't tasty as hell.

No beans isn't just the chili that I make at home. There are a few restaurants in town, mostly steak houses, that have no bean chili and it is always a great surprise. My eyes light up. When we would go to restaurants, even if I was not craving chili, I would order it just to taste it. The chili at Skyline in Ohio, while using cinnamon, has no beans and it is really awesome, especially on hot dogs and pasta. There is a hot dog spot in Saint Louis called Steve's Hot Dogs, and when they make a chili dog they use no bean chili. It makes the chili dog that much better. It is like the Skyline chili dog but with a way better tasting frank and chili. In fact, if any hot dog place uses beans in their chili I will not order chili dogs.

It is not that I dislike beans. I think they are great. They are an excellent source of protein. I know people who choose to not eat meat love beans, as they should. But for a meat eater such as myself, the beans add too much starch to a chili. It almost takes away from the flavor of the chili. I feel like the beans soak up all the good seasoning and juice. That is what I want the meat to do in a chili. I want the meat to bathe in the juice and add even more flavor. It makes for an excellent meal.

All meat chili is the way to go if you are a meat eater and you want a hot side dish, or even if you want it as a main dish. It makes for a filling and delicious tasting meal. At least that is how I feel.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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