There was a 30º temperature drop today. Good times. It was in the 80s yesterday and today we’re pulling out the winter coats! Texas weather is so strange. Cold weather = chili for dinner and I have THE best chili recipe to share with you today. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and spicy, with a velvety consistency that will change your life. I’m not even exaggerating. I’ve been cooking and tweaking this recipe for several years now and have even won several chili cook-offs with this recipe! And it makes a ton, so if you have a crowd to feed (and impress!), this Award-Winning Sweet and Spicy Chili will be your ride or die chili dish. Mark my words.
It’s the perfect time for a hot bowl of chili and this recipe will not disappoint. The ingredients list is a mile long, but it’s totally worth it. After all, we live in Texas, the land of the most discerning chili eaters and if I can win over hard-to-please Texans and win 1st place in chili cook-offs, then you know it’s gotta to be good. I adapted this recipe from this amazing 6-Time Award-Winning Chili Recipe by Kelly of Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen. I streamlined and tweaked the recipe to my preference, but if you want the OG recipe, I encourage you to give Kelly’s recipe a go. Have I convinced you yet? Grab your ingredients and get cooking!
Award-Winning Sweet and Spicy Chili
This is an award-winning chili recipe! It does require a bit of prep work and the ingredients list is a mile long, but it’s TOTALLY worth it! Sweet and spicy, this chili dish will soon become your go-to chili recipe for those cold, wintery nights.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
- 1 large bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, small diced
- 2–4 jalapeno peppers, ribs and seeds removed, small diced
- 1 sweet onion, small diced
- 3 cups V-8 Spicy Hot Vegetable Juice
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- 1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
- 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- 1–2 teaspoons sriracha, to taste
- 1/2 pound of bacon, chopped and fried
- kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, chili powder, ground cumin, and garlic powder, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy. Reserve the bacon grease for later.
- In a large Dutch oven, brown the beef and sausage over medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper. Drain the grease and set the meat aside.
- In the same pot, drizzle about a tablespoon of the reserved bacon grease and sauté the diced peppers and onion. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder and cook until translucent and tender, about 5-8 minutes.
- Add the beef and sausage back to the pot, then add the remaining ingredients: V-8, ketchup, tomatoes, kidney beans, brown sugar, lemon juice, worcestershire, vinegar, mustard, molasses, and sriracha. Mix well.
- Cover and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Add the bacon in the last 30 minutes of cooking.
- Add chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with bread or crackers and top with sour cream, cheese, or any of your favorite toppings. Enjoy!
Notes
- I didn’t include the measurements of the seasonings, but I recommend starting off with 1 teaspoon of each and add more if desired.
- You can use however many jalapeno peppers as you’d like, depending on the spice level you want. Adding more sriracha will also raise the heat level.
- I’ve cooked this recipe in a slow cooker as well and it turned out delicious! Just sauté the meat and veggies before throwing everything into a slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours.
- This dish is even more delicious the next day! Cover and refrigerate for up to a week. Leftovers freeze well too!
Keywords: chili, chilli, chilly,
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I LOVE this chili recipe! It is excellent! I made a couple of tweaks because the hubs doesn’t like beans but other than that I’ve made it like 4x in the past couple of months and will probably make it again this week ??
Side Note, one time I was going through the recipe too fast and accidentally put 2 TBS of WHITE VINEGAR in (aaahhhhh) but I added some more molasses to it and everything went well!
Thank you so much for sharing!
★★★★★
So awesome to hear, Leslye! Thank you!
Congratulations your recipe was a winner in our churchwide chili cook-off. What an awesome choice. We added beef broth, scaled back to one jalapeño and used hot itialian sausage and steak.
★★★★★
I made this for my wife and she said this was the best Chilli she has ever had! Super easy recipe and extremely easy to follow! Tastes fantastic! I have made it twice since the blog post has been written! Thanks so much !
★★★★★
At first, I saw the ingredient list and was a little overwhelmed. But, this chili is worth every minute of prep! Smooth and packed with sweet-heat flavor! This has become a staple in our house; and it only gets better after a couple of days in the fridge! Make it! You won’t regret it.
★★★★★
Chili is amaaaazzzzing!!! Made it 3 times in December alone…at my husbands request! He says it’s the best chili he’s ever tasted..like ever! Thanks!!
I am about an hour away from finishing making this and it already smells and tastes awesome! I was initially worried about the level of sugar and i had never put ketchup in chili before but this may just have become the best chili recipe i’ve made.
Thanks for sharing!
So awesome to hear, David! I hope you enjoy it!
I have a quick question, based on the recipe shown, about how much chili does this recipe make?
Is it really spicy? I usually cant hanfle alot of heat and was worfied about the kids eating it.
Hi Jamie,
You can control the spice level by how much chili powder, jalapenos, and sriracha you add. I’d recommend being conservative with these ingredients and add to your liking. This recipe is not too spicy for my kids.
Your ingredient listing looks quite good, especially the inclusion of italian sausage and bacon, can’t wait to give this a try.
A tip for any chili enthusiast out there – invest in a pressure cooker (you can find the old stove top ones at thrift stores very cheap) and use it to cook dry beans in about 10 minutes -far superior to canned.
Thank you for sharing your recipe!! I just had to share it on Facebook, especially for my daughter who thinks I put way too many different beans in my chili. This sounds fabulous and I’ll be giving it a try soon!
How much of each spice to you use? I know it says “to taste” but I was curious how much you use when you make it. The original recipe which yours is adapted from uses a TON (1/3 cup plus 1 tsp.)of chili powder. I need some sort of guideline because I am not that great of a cook to improvise.
Thanks.
Hi Kristin,
I typically start with 1 teaspoon of each spice and add more according to my tastes. I find that I usually add more ground cumin and salt. As for the the chili powder, start with 1 teaspoon and add more if you want more heat. You can also add more heat with the sriracha and jalapenos if you’d like. Good luck!
I searched a lot of chili recipes and once I read the ingredients to this one, it was exactly what I was looking for. Made it yesterday and let the flavors marry overnight in the fridge. Just heated it up and we enjoyed the best chili I have ever made. Added sour cream, shredded Mexican cheese and avocado on top. Love the sausage with the ground beef. One tweak I did was add a tablespoon of good cocoa powder. It added a little depth. Will definitely be making this again!
So appreciate you sharing this with us…
★★★★
Thanks Susan! That’s so great to hear!
Wow!! Great idea!! So creative and fun.
What kind of bell pepper, red or green? Thanks!
Hi Robin,
I like to use red, but any color bell pepper works!