The Best Keto Chili On The Internet!

Is there anything better than the smell of keto chili cooking in anticipation of a football game? I just love crisp mornings and smells of fall... and it always brings to mind chili.

So, my husband and I put our heads together... watched some America's Test Kitchen episodes on making chili...and then modified our old chili recipe to create this keto chili recipe.

This keto chili is the perfect keto freezer meal. Freeze it in individual servings and enjoy it for lunch or dinner when time is tight.

Prior to going on a keto diet, I had created the an amazing chili recipe using some very simple but not often used cooking methods.

When we transitioned to a keto diet, I knew I had to modify my prior creation and create the best low carb chili recipe.

The taste tests on this were overwhelmingly positive.

A Great Keto Freezer Meal

Furthermore, this keto chili freezes perfectly. It’s the perfect keto freezer meal. Cook up a big batch of this chili over the weekend and freeze it in various sized portions. 

A smaller portion gives me some flexibility in how I use the leftovers for a keto dinner or lunch. For example, I love using this keto chili as a topping for a green salad along with some cheese and sour cream.

My husband takes this keto chili to work in the 1.75 cup portion and tops it with cheese and sour cream for a satisfying and filling lunch.

Flavors & Textures

Cooking keto allows me to really experiment with flavors & textures. The smoked sausage is what replaces the traditional “chili beans” and gives this keto chili a hearty mouth feel. I’ve diced the smoked sausage into small pieces with this intention in mind. Use a smoked sausage and not raw sausage.

The other secret to this keto chili is “blooming” your spices. By simmering your spices in avocado oil you allow the flavors to “bloom”. Browning the meat inside of these bloomed flavors and adding just a little coconut aminos really brings out the meaty flavors in the keto chili. I’ll walk you through how to do all of this in the recipe instructions and video.

See my notes below the keto chili recipe for more cooking tips.

This keto chili recipe makes approximately 8 servings at 1.75 cups each. If you are being exact with your nutrition, make sure you weight out the meat and divide up the number of servings at the end.

3 Essential Ingredient Tips for Cooking Keto Chili

High Quality & Fresh

The secret to this Keto Chili recipe turning out with wonderful flavors are twofold.

First, cook with high quality ingredients.

Second, make sure your ingredients are fresh. If you have spices sitting around that have been there for years. Do me a favor. Toss them. Yup. All of them.

Then, follow the links below and order high quality spices. I’ve hand-selected this collection of spices for cooking this keto chili recipe– choosing organic when possible. Ordering online is generally the easiest (and least expensive) way to find all the ingredients.

If you don’t cook often, consider splitting the spices with a friend. You really should replace your spices every year (or two). This will transform your keto recipes into something truly special.

P.S. The links in this post are affiliate links when possible. Thank you for considering using them ?

Hate chopping?

Order the dried versions and substitute based on the conversions that come with each ingredient. This is a trick I use very often during the winter months when my local farmers markets are closed down and organic produce prices skyrocket due to less availability.

There’s no shame in shortcuts when you’re cooking! Especially when you’re cooking keto chili.

Another tool we often use is a slap chop like this one....

Bloom Those Spices

No, No, No! Don’t just throw it all together in a crockpot! Blooming your spices is a very easy and critical step to this keto chili recipe.

Watch the video to see just how easy blooming your spices can be.

The result is a rich & flavorful chili that you just can’t get by throwing it all together and turning on the crockpot!

Use these tips to turn your mediocre keto dinner into something truly envy-worthy.

Substitutions When Making Keto Chili

Missing one or two of the spices in the list? No worries– you can mix/switch up the different chili powders and still get great results.

Want this keto chili to be a little lower carb?

Omit the tomato paste. It packs the biggest carb punch out of all the ingredients.

Ingredients for Meaty Keto Chili

Here’s a few yummy ingredients you'll need to make this meaty keto chili:

• Dried Jalapenos
• Dried Red Pepper
• Dried Garlic
• Dried Onions
• Cumin Powder
• Chipotle Chili Powder
• Ancho Chili Powder
• Chili Powder
• Dried Oregano
• Cayenne Pepper
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Coconut Aminos
• Tomato Paste
• Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilis

Tutorial Video: Meaty Keto Chili

Check out my YouTube channel “Tara’s Keto Kitchen”! 

I share new videos and recipes every week. Subscribe so you’re notified by YouTube when the recipes post.

📖 Recipe

Meaty Keto Chili

This is absolutely the best keto chili on the internet. 

A few of the techniques I am using here I learned from my obsessive “Americas Test Kitchen” watching. We bloom the spices to bring out the flavor and we brown the ground beef in spices to pull a meatier flavor out.

This recipe does also work in a Crock-Pot; But it tastes way better if you take the time to follow the steps 🙂

4.77 from 17 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Keto, Main Course

Cuisine: Keto

Diet: Diabetic, Gluten Free

Keyword: chili, keto dinner

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 Servings (1.25c each)

Author: Tara Wright

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef grass-fed
• 3-4 links smoked sausage 14 oz
• ½ cup avocado oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 red bell pepper
• 3 jalapenos (for added heat, leave the seeds in one or more!) seeded & chopped
• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin ground
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• dash cayenne pepper ground
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
• 1 Tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1 can organic tomato paste 6 ounces
• 2 can tomatoes with green chilis 14 ounces, diced

Instructions

• In a medium sized dutch oven or pan, heat ½ cup avocado oil for a few minutes until it shimmers.
• Now, we will “bloom” our spices. This is a very easy cooking trick that will transform the flavor of this dish exponentially! We’re just going to add all of the ground spices to the avocado oil and cook the spices in the oil for a few minutes.
• Next, add the chopped onion, red bell pepper, jalapenos and garlic cloves. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes or until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add the diced sausage links and cook for 5 minutes.
• We’re now ready to brown the beef in all of these amazing flavors. Add half of your ground beef, working in chunks. Use your spoon to chop up the beef into small pieces. Add the Coconut Aminos. Cook for 3-5 minutes and then repeat with the other half of your hamburger.
• Cook hamburger for an additional 10 minutes or until no pink remains.
• Finally, we’re ready to add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Add these to the simmering pan and stir them in carefully.
• Simmer your chili for 1-2 hours on low heat.
• Garnish your completed keto dinner with real sour cream & shredded cheese.

Notes

Notes: In the winter months when fresh produce isn’t as easy to come by, we used the dried counterparts. This is also a great “cheat” for those of you who don’t enjoy chopping! I fully encourage you to embrace these small cheats to make cooking keto easier!

You could further reduce the carb count of this keto chili by cutting the tomato paste and tomatoes by half.

Nutrition facts are provided as estimates only.

Nutrition

Calories: 467kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 80mg | Sodium: 471mg | Potassium: 825mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1400IU | Vitamin C: 41.3mg | Calcium: 75mg | Iron: 4.5mg

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