Chili—let us count the ways. Fall is here! Football games with tailgate parties. Leaves falling. Cooler evenings. All of these are signs that it is chili season. In fact, it is National Chili Month.

For many years we have worked with a Midwestern chili seasonings company, Williams Foods, and one of the highlights of the year is the huge Chili Challenge held in Lenexa, Ks. It was just last weekend!

This year, about 200 teams competed for the honors and the air was absolutely tantalizing with the smells of simmering chilies. Take a look at this year’s fun! The weather was beautiful and the crowds were huge!

We served a lot of chili and met so many great folks.

For 17 years we judged a national chili recipe contest for Williams Foods and really believe there is no one “right”—or “wrong” way to make chili. We have seen thick ones, thin ones, hotter-than-fire ones, kid-mild ones, ones with beans or without beans, and ones with (or without) every kind of meat imaginable. There are lots of new and trendy gourmet chilies—but this time, I am sharing a comforting, old-fashioned Midwestern chili recipe.

What makes it Midwestern? Tomatoes and ground beef with red kidney beans. We laugh but we can almost always tell where people are from by the kind of chili they make. Here in the Midwest it often includes red or kidney beans. Travel down Route 66 into Oklahoma and the beans of choice are pinto beans and Texans often don’t add beans. New Mexico chili is often chunks of beef with a pot of beans cooked separately.

So here is my version—nothing trendy about it. Easy to fix, easy to freeze for another night, and easy to add a little more spice if you want to turn up the heat. Yes, it is made with Williams Chili Seasoning, but if you grew up in the Kansas City area like both Roxanne and I did, that is the way we made chili. It is pure chili seasoning, and doesn’t have the salt or fillers that many mixes do, so we use it often. But, if you live in a region that doesn’t have Williams products, follow the tips on the recipe.

We love to talk to people about chili–the chili they remember as a child, the one they ate at that diner down the road, the trendiest chili they just tasted or the next new chili recipe they are dreaming up. Let us know your chili story.

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