These items are probably already in your pantry.
After all, you want to pile your bowl full of delicious toppings, right?
Read on for how to thicken chili with our favorite Southern ingredient as well as other methods and tips.
Credit:Hector M. Sanchez
it’s possible for you to use white or yellow cornmeal that is fine to medium-grain.
Or trymasa harina, a very fine corn flour traditionally used to makecorn tortillasor tamales.
Masa harina is usually stocked near other Latin American food products in grocery stores.
Types Of Cornmeal To Avoid In Chili
Be sure to avoidusing polentaor coarse-ground cornmeal.
Also avoid dry cornbread mixes, which may contain other ingredients like flour and sugar.
Remove the lid and allow the pot to simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes.
Stir and check to see if it needs to cook longer.
Crush up a few chips and sprinkle them into the chili.
Mix into the pot and simmer until the chips are fully absorbed.
Mix In Tortillas
If you have plaincorn tortillas, they act similarly to cornmeal to thicken chili.
You’ll want to blend them, so tear one corn tortilla into small pieces.
Remove 1 cup of broth from the chili and add it to a blender.
Add the torn tortilla pieces and puree.
Add the mixture to the chili and let simmer for 10 minutes to thicken.
Thicken With Oats
A tablespoon of quick-cooking oats will turn soupy chili into a hearty stew.
Just add in the oats, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Give the chili a good stir afterward to mix the mashed beans into the base.
Depending on how much you add, you may need to adjust spices and seasoning after.
Then stir the slurry into your chili and let it simmer for another 10 minutes to fully thicken.
Stir until smooth, then add it to the chili.
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Simmer for at least 30 minutes.
This is not only a thickener, but it also lends plenty of rich tomato flavor.
The liquid should help loosen the ingredients but not make it soupy.
Using too many canned or fresh tomatoes also introduces extra liquid.
Tomato paste provides a rich tomato flavor without the excess liquid of canned tomatoes.
see to it not to rush your chili.
Thin chili may just need time to cook down.
Cook it uncovered low and slow, at least one hour, for it to thicken on its own.
Cooking it uncovered allows for evaporation to reduce and concentrate the chili.
For quickweeknight chili, using cornmeal is probably the fastest option.
The addition of canned pumpkin naturally thickens afall-inspired chilithat swaps ground turkey for beef.
Ourtraditional chilihas all the classic ingredients and relies on tomato paste as a thickener.
Simmer longer for a thick, hearty meal.
