1poundground beef (minced beef) - at least 93% fat-free
1largeyellow onion - chopped
2clovesgarlic - crushed
1cantomato - 16 ounces
2-3tablespoonschili powder (chilli powder in British English) - depending on your preference
2teaspoonssalt
1teaspoonWorcestershire sauce
½teaspoonred pepper/hot sauce
1canred kidney beans - 15 ounces drained,
½cuppasta – shells elbow - your choice!
Instructions
Cook and stir ground beef, onion and garlic in a large saucepan until beef is light brown. This whole recipe gets cooked in one pot, so make sure you have enough room! For a finer ground meat texture, add a little water gradually to your ground meat as you continuously break apart the meat. I’ll fill a small cup of water and pour a little at a time as needed. Sometimes I just like the meat finer, and it also helps you to be sure you can see it is all cooked through. Since the remaining moisture is mostly water, I don’t drain it so that it will help boil the pasta later on. Stir in tomatoes (don’t drain), chili powder, salt and sauces. Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about an hour.
Heat again to boiling and stir in pasta. Return to simmer until pasta is cooked thru. Add beans since they are cooked the least amount of time to avoid breaking.
Notes
Tips: I cook 2 pounds of meat and double everything in the recipe. For two pounds of meat, I only add about 3 handfuls of pasta shells (because I really don’t measure anything). Pasta grows, so if it doesn’t look like enough when you put it in your big cauldron of chili, don’t worry! I like to keep my pasta amount down so I know I’m getting a better protein-to-carb ratio.