Been seeing a lot of the beans in vs. no beans in chili fighting as of late on Social Media lately.

My view...

If you put beans in chili it is still chili. It is likely closer to original trail chili than all meat, as cowboys could not just shoot a cow on the trail every time they were hungry. Beans last forever dry, as do dried peppers and salt. So bean heavy chili is more traditional.

Also, beans in chili is for "the poors"! 😝

My grandmaw used to make a "potato soup" that was basically potatoes, onions and thin brown gravy. I said to her one day, this would be better with beef in it. She said we could not afford beef in the Depression.

I really appreciated that she taught me about those times with food. But one or two bowls was enough. I went and bought her some extra beef and when I saw the potato soup stuff come out, would grab a couple pounds and say, here add this, I paid for it.

We both agreed it was BETTER with beef in it. Likewise, chili is still chili with beans in it, it just is inferior to chili with all meat.

So if you want to stretch your chili to save money, go ahead, but if you want the best chili, leave the beans out.