If you love the chili at Wendy's fast food restaurants, try making it at home with this simple copycat recipe.
It takes about two hours for all of the flavors to cook together to delicious chili perfection, or you could make it in a slow cooker (5-6 hours) or pressure cooker (20-30 minutes) if that suits your time frame better.
I have a few copycat chili recipes already on the site including Chasen's Chili from Chasen's Restaurant in Hollywood a favorite of movie stars and Tommy's Chili from a beloved southern California burger chain.
One of the unique things about Wendy's Chili is it uses two kids of beans: pinto and kidney beans. Most chili recipes I have seen use none or one. But the combination really works wonderfully.
Ingredients for Wendy's Chili
All of the ingredients are easy to find in the US:
- ground beef (15% fat or higher preferred)
- canned low sodium pinto beans
- canned low sodium kidney beans
- can diced tomatoes
- yellow onion
- jalapeno pepper
- Spices: chili powder, cumin powder, salt and pepper
I use canned beans for convenience, but you can use dried beans that have been soaked if you prefer. Use about ยพ cup of dried beans for each 15 ounce can. Soak them overnight in water, or do a quick soak, or cook longer. Discard the soaking water and add about ยฝ cup of water for the additional liquid in the canned beans.
I always opt for low sodium canned beans and add the salt to our preference at the end. Do what you prefer.
Cooking Wendy's Chili in a Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Slow Cooker: brown the ground beef in a skillet on the stove then add everything to the crock of a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Cook 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
Pressure Cooker: brown the ground beef in the cooker then add the remaining ingredients. Cook for 20 minutes on high, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes then do a quick release of remaining pressure.
More Chili Recipes from #OurFamilyTable
There are so many delicious ways to enjoy chili. Here are a few to try:
Celebrating Chili Day
- Cincinnati Chili 5-Way from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
- Creamy White Chicken Chili from Crazy For Couponing
- Slow Cooker White Bean and Chicken Chili from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Southern Living White Chicken Chili Recipe from Jen Around the World
- White Chili with Pork or Chicken from Art of Natural Living
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Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef (15% fat or higher preferred)
- 15 ounce canned low sodium pinto beans (with liquid)
- 15 ounce canned low sodium kidney beans (with liquid)
- ยฝ cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper (seeded and finely chopped)
- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water (plus more as needed)
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoons cumin powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Crumble ground beef into a large pot and brown over medium heat. Drain fat if desired.
- Reduce heat to low, add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Simmer for 2 hours, stirring every 15- 20 minutes, adding small amounts of extra water as needed.
- Serve with grated cheese and chopped onions, if desired.
Notes
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Until next time, happy eating!
~Audrey
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