Recipe: Copycat Wendy’s Chili

I don’t know about you but I love a good bowl of chili. And I thoroughly enjoying making a huge pot of chili on a cool, crisp day. I’ve made a few different types of chili in the past, including a Hearty No Bean Chili and a Taco Soup (it’s very similar to chili.) I’m always up for trying new recipes so when I came across a Copycat Wendy’s Chili recipe over at Love Bakes Good Cakes, I knew I had to give the recipe a try. Boy and I glad that I did. While the chili doesn’t taste exactly like Wendy’s chili, it does taste amazing. It actually reminds me of the chili that my mom used to make when I was a kid. Mom’s chili always was one of my favorite chili recipes and probably the best that I ever had so I was happy to have something that tasted very similar to hers.

I made a few changes to the recipe that I found over at Love Bakes Good Cakes: I used light red kidney beans rather than dark red kidney beans, chili beans rather than pinto beans (ok, chili beans are pinto beans…dressed up in chili sauce) and I used 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper rather than 1/8 tsp. I like my chili with a bit of a kick. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 C chopped celery
• 1 46 oz bottle of tomato juice
• 1 29 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/4 C chili powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp white sugar
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15.5 oz chili beans

Directions

• In a large pot over medium high heat, brown the ground beef along with the onion, bell pepper and celery. Drain after cooking and return to the pot.
• Add the remaining ingredients to the pot, mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Enjoy topped with cheese and sour cream or crackers. Or you can enjoy alone. For one of our leftover chili nights, I cooked some elbow macaroni and we had chili mac. You can’t go wrong with chili mac.

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