Today was damp and cold. Damp is a great thing around here! Cold, on the other hand, is just cold. To help warm up, I decided to make one of our new favorite recipes: Spicy Taco Chili.

We always eat a lot of chili in the winter, and I guess we got carried away because I started to get tired of my simple recipe. A couple of months ago I started throwing some things together based on my chili recipe and a taco soup recipe I had seen. The first attempt was pretty delicious, and it’s become a pretty regular meal. Besides being hearty and delicious – it’s so easy!

What you’ll need:

Tomato juice or sauce
1 lb ground beef
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans with chili spices
1 can of Rotel
1 pkg of your favorite taco seasoning
Chili powder and cumin to taste

Suggested Fixins (optional):

Cheese
Tortilla chips or Fritos
Sour cream
Jalapeños

Directions:

Brown and drain the ground beef. Add tomato juice and taco seasoning, let simmer for a few minutes. Add cumin and chili powder. Add Rotel, corn, and black beans. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with fixings of your preference.

Yum!

I always recommend cooking and eating what you like. This recipe is great because there are lots of ways to customize it. For the liquid, I use a pint jar of homemade tomato sauce and a pint of water, but when we run out I will substitute a can of tomato juice. I also use 1.5 lbs of beef because that’s how we get our meat packaged. We prefer “hot” Rotel, but you should choose the flavor best-suited to your tastes. I’ve also included some other spices like red pepper and garlic for a slight variation.  I always serve this with chips and cheese, but we’ve also successfully tried sour cream and jalapeños.

Try this recipe as I’ve written it, or try your own twist! Enjoy!

2020 Update: This is still one of our favorite recipes, especially in cold weather! The kids love the flavor, and I love that it has some veggies AND is insanely quick and easy!  They like it so well that I now usually make it with 2 lbs of ground beef and two cans of tomato sauce (so that we can have leftovers). We do use regular or mild Rotel now, though…This also is dairy-free before added toppings, which is awesome for my food allergy kiddo.  He likes it with chips or crackers and a soy based cheese!