Chilli is not grey mince with a shake of powder. It is browned beef, onion, spice cooked out, a simmer. Lean mince makes the browning more important because there is less fat to taste of itself. Lean Beef Mince 400g is one pot. Fresh Lean Beef Mince - 5 x 400g is a chilli weekend and two extra sauces. Lean beef mince and minced beef are the shelves; use richer mince if you want a silkier pot.
The brown
Wide pan, 400g, a little oil, high heat, break it up, leave it to catch. Onion, garlic, cumin, chilli, tomato puree cooked a minute. Tinned tomatoes, a splash of water, simmer 30 to 40 minutes. Taste salt. Lean mince is blunt if you under-season. Beans if you are that household; we are a butcher, not the bean police.
A 400g pack feeds three to four with rice. Double it with two packs if people are hungry. Shop beef if you wanted extra-lean dice in the chilli as well; some people like a mixed texture. Dice wants longer. Add it earlier.
Next day
Chilli is better on day two. Cool it, fridge it, reheat it. Freeze in tubs if you used the 5-pack and made a vat. Do not freeze it in one giant block. Meal-size tubs thaw overnight.
What not to do
Do not boil mince in a tiny pan and call it chilli. Do not skip the puree-cooking step. Do not drown it so early that it never thickens. Chilli should sit on a rice plate, not run off it. That is a British home chilli with butcher’s mince, not a competition pot, and it is still worth making properly.
If you batch the 5 x 400g, brown in batches too. A heap of mince is stew water. Two pans, or two rounds. The extra ten minutes is the difference between a chilli you repeat and a chilli you never mention again.
Write the meal on a notepad the day the delivery lands, even if the meal is ordinary. Hunger at 6pm is a bad planner. Ordinary dinners cooked on time beat clever dinners that never leave the freezer, every week of the year. That is as true of How to Make Chilli Con Carne with Lean Mince as of any other pack we send out of the cutting room. Cook it like the cut it is, and it will earn the next click.
Keep sides simple so the meat can be the cook: potatoes, greens, rice, a bun. A pack is not a tasting menu. If you attempt six projects, the meat will be the thing that goes grey while you chop. One good cut, two sides, sit down. That is as true of How to Make Chilli Con Carne with Lean Mince as of any other pack we send out of the cutting room. Cook it like the cut it is, and it will earn the next click.
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