So, full disclosure: I didn't find this particularly either sweet or spicy. It wasn't my favourite chili overall, but it did come together very quickly and TF and the Kidlet both liked it and I was able to use it to do a bit of fridge clean-out, so I'm still counting it as a win.

If I were making this again, I think I'd want more beans, more tomatoes, and more chilies. But, again, as a very quick and easy throw-together dinner, it works pretty well. If you can knock together a salad or some other vegetable side, then you've got a decent meal for not too much effort.

Sweet-and-Spicy Beef Chili

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2016

Ingredients

• 450g ground beef¹
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. minced chipotles in adobo
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. chili powder (optional)
• 1 (475mL) can baked beans in molasses
• 1 c. cooked kidney or pinto beans (optional)
• 1 (828mL) can diced tomatoes³ (preferably fire-roasted)
• 1 c. frozen corn⁴
• ~1 c. grated Cheddar cheese, to serve
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh cilantro, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Cook the beef, onion, salt, and pepper together over medium heat until meat is no longer pink (~8 minutes).
2. Add the chipotles, garlic, cumin, and chili powerd (if using) and cook for 30-60 seconds.
3. Add the beans, tomatoes, and corn and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for ~15 minutes.
5. Serve topped with cheese and cilantro (if using).

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¹ The original recipe calls for 567g of 85% lean² ground beef. That is an awkward amount. All our ground beef is packaged in 450g bags and I didn't want to get into trying to use 1/4 of a package of mince and then trying to figure out what to do with the remaining portion. Even with that, I actually found this chili very heavy on the beef. I would've preferred to have had proportionally more beans and veggies, honestly. So I'm extra glad I didn't put the full amount of beef in. ^Back
2 I'm pretty sure our beef is leaner than that, so I added a little bacon grease in with the beef to compensate for the lower fat content and to give the onion something to fry in. ^Back
3 The original recipe only calls for 428mL of diced tomatoes, but I didn't find this to be nearly enough! Luckily I had some tomato salsa and a bit of salsa verde left over in the fridge, so I was able to toss them in to balance things out a bit. Yay for fridge clean-out! ^Back
4 I got mixed up and accidentally added twice as much corn as I was supposed to. Whoops! ^Back