Make Canned Chili Taste Homemade By Mixing In 3 Simple Ingredients

Like so many men in the United States, I spent a chunk of my younger years before I really learned to cook depending on canned chili. As far as convenience foods go, it's certainly one of the better ones. If you are buying the best canned chili brands, the drop-off in flavor compared to homemade isn't as steep as it is with other soups, because the basic tastes of ground beef, meat, and chili spices have plenty of flavor, preserve well, and are pretty hard to mess up. But as I got better at making my own chili, the plain canned stuff wouldn't quite do anymore. Thankfully, I've now learned that when I'm in a rush and can't make my own chili, I can always upgrade canned chili quickly with three things I always have on hand: onions, jalapeños, and hot sauce.

Those three ingredients bring several things most canned chilis need, starting with acid. Onions, jalapeños, and hot sauce are each acidic to various degrees, and acid is a booster that can highlight the flavors in any dish. Canned chili and other canned or frozen foods often need this even more than homemade dishes because their flavors have dulled over their long storage time, or have been made that way to appeal to the widest range of palates. Acid will brighten your canned chili and balance out its fattier or more sugary flavors.

The jalapeños and hot sauce also help to add some extra heat, as I find most canned chilis play it on the safe side and don't get me sweating too much. Finally, all three items combine to add some freshness and complexity to canned chili, which can often be kind of flat and one-note, even when it's good.

The best part of plussing up your canned chili with onions, jalapeños, and hot sauce is that it's incredibly easy. I personally like the flavor and added texture of fresh onions and jalapeños, so I like to just dice some up and add them straight to canned chili before I heat it. Your favorite hot sauce should be added after heating, tasting after a few dashes, so you can take it slow if the jalapeños have already added enough heat. But that vinegar flavor is essential to waking up canned chili, even if you just use a little.

If you want a little less heat and acidic bite, but a little more complexity, you can saute the onions and jalapeños together for a few minutes before adding them. This will make them less pungent, but let you get some flavor from the browning, and bring out more sweetness.

While those are the most essential upgrades for me, you don't have to stop there. If you are heating your chili in a pot, you can bloom some chili powder, cayenne, and other spices in oil before adding the chili to give it more depth of flavor. If you want an easy way to add more freshness, a can of Rotel will help lighten it up. You can also go beyond the onions and jalapeños with other fresh additions like green onion, green chile, and cilantro, as the muted taste of canned chili will always welcome extra brightness. Eventually you'll get to the point where you're chopping up enough ingredients to just make your chili from scratch, but your canned chili will also be good enough that you won't have to.