Weeknight Black Bean Chili Recipe
Black Bean Chili is perfect for a quick-fix weeknight supper. Ready in 30 minutes, this chili is full of ground beef, black beans, and tons of flavor!
Chili. It’s what’s for supper.
This Black Bean Chili is perfect for a weeknight supper. Hearty and it doesn’t have to simmer all dad gum day before it tastes good either.
I don’t know about you, but that’s my kind of meal.
Don’t get me wrong, I love slow cook chili that simmers and bubbles on the stove for the afternoon and slow cooker chili is absolutely a favorite.
But, let’s be real.
There are many days that our clock strikes 4 o’clock and I haven’t started anything for supper. These are the days that I love to pull out a recipe like this without missing a beat in flavor and taste.
It’s just good to have a good chili recipe in your arsenal for such nights.
Here’s my recipe for Weeknight Black Bean Chili. It’s a keeper.
Weeknight Black Bean Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 slices bacon diced
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (16-ounce) can black beans drained and rinsed
- sour cream
- grated cheddar cheese
Directions
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Add diced bacon to a heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium heat. Cook until crispy, then add in onions and garlic and cook until tender. Add ground beef and cook until done. Drain off any grease and place ingredients back into the stockpot over medium heat.
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Add seasonings, tomatoes and black beans. Reduce to a simmer and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.
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Serve with sour cream and grated cheddar cheese.
All images and text © Robyn Stone for Add a Pinch
Enjoy!
Robyn
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2012.
Looks delicious and quick! I love ANY chili recipe, esp a fast one!
I love a quick chili…sometime you don’t have all day!
Looks great and so quick! Definitely making this soon. Thanks!!!!
It’s such a hearty comforting dish for fall/winter!
I really love a good chili recipe. Especially when the leaves start turning colors and the nights get cooler. Just the perfect thing to warm you up! Delicious!
WOW does this chili look good! Yes to black beans and yes to weeknight chili for autumn!!
I have everything to make this for dinner, except for the ground beef. Bummer! Printing it up for next week. Looks tasty.
This looks amazing, Robyn! I much prefer black beans over any other bean, love the idea of adding them to chili!
I love easy weeknight suppers. This looks so delicious and filling. I love that it takes very little time to make such a flavorful dish!
I love how fast this is – and it sounds like it is packed full of flavor!!
Looks yummy!
I made this tonight. I love that it was easy to make, didn’t take all day to cook and tasted great! Oh, and it made just the right amount. You know how sometimes when you make a batch of chili and it makes almost too much? Not this one. Thank you sharing.
I made this for dinner tonight, and my family enjoyed it. It is very easy to put together. It has less tomato flavor than my crock pot chili, but is still very tasty.
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this looks mighty tasty! i’m totalyl going to try it! thank you for sharing. pinned!
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I made this for dinner tonight and it is delish! I added a bit of cayenne to bring a little heat, but other than that this recipe is perfect as is!
So glad you loved it, Courtney!
Exceptional!!!
Made this for my Church’s Super Bowl Chilli cookoff and I won Most Flavorful out of about 20 entries. This is a good mild chilli for kids and adults.
YAY! Congratulations, Mike!
This is a great recipe that shows that you don’t need lots of exotic ingredients to cook a great meal. Thank you for sharing it! In my case it needed some minor tweaking to get the proportions of the different ingredients right (European and American cans are not made equal), but then the result was very tasty. And it gets even better when you can spare the time to let it simmer half an hour longer.
This is AWESOME! I just made this for the frito pie for tonight’s dinner. I’ll never use chili mix again. THANNKS!
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I tripled the bacon and it came out great!
Made this tonight – delicious! Not expensive, super-fast and easy and SO GOOD. I did add 1 can of tomato sauce and upped the Chili Powder. I like it a little more soupy so the added tomato sauce fixed me right up.
This chili is honestly the best I’ve ever had! It also works in a slow cooker! I followed the recipe exactly, except instead of simmering in the stock pot for 30 mins, I put it on low in the slow cooker for 3 hours. Being a busy college student this gives me time to clean up the kitchen and get some homework done before dinner! I hope this will work for other busy people as well! 🙂 Thank You for the amazing recipe!
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I tried this recipe last night and incorporated a couple of small changes to make this a vegetarian chili by omitting the bacon and using veggie crumbles in place of ground beef. This turned out to be a very delicious chili, and very easy to make. I will definitely keep this recipe in mind when its time to make some chili. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds absolutely delicious! I love all the ingredients! Pinning to try!! THANK YOU!!
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I’m wanting to try this recipe but wonder if you are supposed to keep the liquid in the black beans can or strain? I like to strain my cans of beans. If I do that, I guess I could add the liquid of tomato sauce or ketchup, I’m a Texan.
Thanks!
Hi Misty,
I do not drain the black beans, so yes, you can just substitute with another liquid in place of it. I hope you enjoy it!
I Strain my beans, never thought of catch-up because it has sugar in it I don’t put any bacon and mine nor oregano but I have made this four times and I love it .
Pamela in Rancho Mirage California
I just found and made this chili recipe today. I let it simmer on low for a few hours, and I didn’t have cumin or sour cream, however this recipe is to die for!!! My family loves it! I also whipped up a quick batch of supreme drop biscuits and put tummies are full and happy! Your Weeknight Black Bean Chili Recipe is going in my permanent recipe collection! Thank you for sharing!
One of our staples during the cold winters, great, great, comfort food.
Chili that is ready in minutes? You continue to be a genius, Robyn! This looks so perfect for the rainy Wednesday I’m about to have…
Do you have a good recipe for vegetarian chili??
I just made this minus bacon and Worchestershire sauce, plus salt and pepper. Still came out pretty good but I’ll bet adding those 2 ingredients back would improve the flavor even more. I used diced instead of crushed tomatoes and found myself wanting the tomatoes to be reduced down more, but after about 20 min of simmering couldn’t hold back longer! Am letting the post-dinner remainder simmer down longer before freezing.
I made this tonight for dinner. I added in corn to have a veggie in the dish. Excellent!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Mandy! One of our weeknight staples! 🙂
thanks for this recipe, have been searching for different chili recipes with black beans and saw yours with the added bonus of bacon! Nice touch and perfect timing for me!
I use salt pork in place of Bacon.
Curious: why the bacon? Is it for the fat content? Not sure how I feel about the taste of bacon combined with cumin. Not saying I won’t try it, though. I’ve been seriously looking for a black bean chili recipe. This fits the bill – plus I need quick since I work all day and need a fast meal sometimes.
And Oregano? never tried that in chili. I may also have to add a can of Rotel. 🙂
Hi! The bacon adds an additional layer of flavor to the chili and the oregano does as well. We love it. If you’d rather not use the bacon, substitute olive oil in place of the bacon and you can up the other spices in place of the oregano, if you’d like as well! I hope you enjoy it! (And I know what you mean about needing fast meals!)
It was cold and rainy last night, and I was in the mood for chili but alas! We had no kidney beans. I found this recipe and doubled the batch for my large family (8 at home). I was a little concerned about what the kids would think about the black beans, but I figured with bacon in it, then maybe they’d at least tolerate it. Wrong! They LOVED it, even my picky eaters. There were no left overs. Thanks for an easy, excellent recipe.
Hi Mary-Claire –
Chili is just the BEST on those cool, rainy nights, isn’t it?! And it’s a great feeling when the picky eaters in the family love what you cooked! I’m happy it worked for you and everyone enjoyed it! Thanks so much! xo
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Very tasty and I love that it’s “ready in no time”! I am used to waiting a day to develop flavor. This recipe changed my mind. I have to admit that I couldn’t resist a few shakes of my favorite smoky Chipotle seasoning, but there wasn’t a drop.of this chili left! Thanks for sharing!
Yay, Robin! I’m so glad you loved this chili! It truly is life-changing in the chili department at my house! xo
FYI: No one makes a 16bounce can of beans, tomatoes, or any other vegetable. 15? Yes. 14.5? Absolutely. Anyway, going to make this as the recipe seems sound and in a pinch, so I’ll let you know. BTW, I always make a recipe unadultered the first time I make it so I get a clear picture of what you’re thinking and I can give an honest review later.
I hope you enjoy it, Ben! Thanks!
Ok, so I made this exactly as written. Not bad. It’s quick, simple, and uses minimal ingredients and can be easily modified to your tastes, such as adding in corn, chopped peppers, etc. Versatile. You don’t even really have to watch it that closely, so If you’re distracted by the chaos of children while cooking…
Note that there’s no added salt, pepper, or added water or stock. It was salty enough on its own and the tomatoes lended just the right amount of sweetness. Likewise, the spices create their own complexity without being drowned out by salt and pepper. As long as you drain the fat, this is a pretty healthy dish.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for something to do with that old can of black beans in your pantry, this is the dish to make. I made this in a 12 inch cast iron skillet and served over elbow pasta and grated cheddar over the top.
Thanks for the review, Ben! I’m glad you liked it – and yes, I definitely don’t want to over-salt a dish…people’s tastes are so varied. It sounds amazing over elbow pasta with cheddar – YUM! Thanks again!
I made this dish using 3 chopped jalapeno peppers to replace the sweet peppers (I like it hot).Served over hot white rice and it was the best! If you want something to warm you up on a cold autumn or winter evening, this will do the trick. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed this, John! It is one of our favorites -especially on a chilly day! Thanks so much!
Only chili I make now. Love this recipe! Can never find a small can of crushed tomatoes though, so I have tried a few different alternatives and the Zesty Chili Style diced tomatoes is the absolute best with it. Just, yum!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoy this, Renee! It’s one of my favorite chili recipes too. Thanks so much! xo
Yours looks amazing!
Mine has no moisture or sauce to it. I put a whole fresh chilli in instead but it taste fine.
I thought it maybe the 400gm tin of tomato & black beans, what do think?
I loved how quickly this came together, but it didn’t have a lot of flavor. I added a tablespoon each of the spices instead of a teaspoon. I also added in salt, pepper, garlic salt, and taco seasoning. Those additions really helped.
Hi Jessica,
You can definitely add more spices to suit your individual taste. Thanks!