Tag Archives: wendys-copycat-chili

Copycat Wendy’s Chili Recipe

In Mendota, we didn’t think winter would ever arrive when we were lounging around in 70 degree temperatures in December.  Whoops!  Were we wrong!   It’s here!

We had a weird little snow last night that left things very slick so I took a serendipitous holiday/vacation day from work.   I was about to change my mind and go in around 9 am when WCYB TV came on with a report about all of the wrecks–one near where I work which, apparently, downed two power poles.  My driver said he wasn’t taking me and I wasn’t going to drive my Prius, so it was a day at home!!

So…it was a good day for chili and I’d been looking at a  Wendy’s chili recipe that I found on a website called www.topsecretrecipes.com.    I followed the recipe closely with the exception of medium tomatoes, chopped.   Instead,  I used the southern woman’s secret weapon for any recipe — our home canned tomatoes and then I reduced the amount of water that the recipe called for.    There are few things as good.

Canned Tomatoes

I can open the jar and just eat the tomatoes.  I only used the quart jar of tomatoes.

At any rate, I used a quart jar of tomatoes and just reduced the water in the recipe to 1 and 1/2 cups vs. 2 cups.

Here’s the recipe:

2 pounds of ground beef

one 29 oz. can tomato sauce

one 29 oz. can kidney beans (including liquid)

one 29 oz. can pinto beans (including liquid)

1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)

1/2 cup sliced green chilies (2 chilies)

1/4 cup diced celery (1 stalk)

3 medium tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 quart of home canned tomatoes)

2 teaspoons cumin powder

3 tablespoons chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons sale

2 cups water (I used 1 and 1/2 because of the water in the home canned tomatoes)

Brown the beef in a skillet over medium heat and drain the fat.   Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea-size pieces.  (I mashed the heck out of the beef with a potato masher).  In a large pot, combine everything and cook about 2 to 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

Here’s what it looked like.  I didn’t have any cheddar cheese to put in it so I used what I had…mozzarella cheese.    Yeah…I eat all my chili out on the porch in the snow.   It’s just our way around here.

Chile 2

This made a ton of chili, and it does taste like Wendy’s chili.    However, I miss those yellow cardboard bowls.

Have any of you heard about a large snow headed for southwest Virginia on February 16?  If you want that snow, you know what you need to do:

  • Wear your pajamas wrong side out
  • Sleep with a spoon under your pillow
  • Flush six ice cubes down the commode
  • Brush your teeth with the wrong hand

It works.   This is science.  You can make it happen.

 

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