Our ultimate beef and vegetable chili takes time, but that patience is rewarded with a deeply flavorful and satisfying chili that’s worth the wait. We started with well-marbled, inexpensive beef chuck-eye for its ability to become meltingly tender. We browned it in our Dutch oven for rich flavor and then stewed it in the oven long enough to make it fork-tender. An aromatic base of garlic, cumin, chipotle, and chili powder gave our stew real depth of flavor and some heat. The heat balanced out the sweetness of our sweet potatoes and red bell pepper, and mild beer added further complexity. We added a quarter of the potatoes in the beginning, knowing that they would break down to thicken our stew, and we waited to stir in the beans with the tomatoes so that they cooked enough to absorb flavor but not so much that they fell apart. Once our meat was tender, we added the rest of the potatoes and bell pepper, cooking them just long enough to have toothsome chunks in our stew. Light-bodied American lagers, such as Budweiser, work best in this recipe. Depending on the size of your Dutch oven, you may need to brown the beef in three batches rather than two. Serve with your favorite chili toppings.
Ingredients
- 3½ pounds boneless beef chuck-eye roast, pulled apart at seams, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1½ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1½ cups beer
- 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed
- 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 4 scallions, sliced thin
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown half of beef on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to bowl. Repeat with 1 tablespoon oil and remaining beef; transfer to bowl.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, onion, and ¾ cup sweet potatoes to fat left in pot and cook over medium heat until just beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic, cumin, chipotle, chili powder, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and their juice and beer, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in beans and beef, along with any accumulated juices, and bring to simmer.
- Cover, transfer pot to oven, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are broken down and beef is just tender, about 1¾ hours.
- Stir in remaining sweet potatoes and bell pepper and continue to cook in oven, covered, until meat and sweet potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove pot from oven, uncover, and let chili sit until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Adjust consistency with hot water as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle individual portions with scallions before serving.