r/chili • u/Early-Package-8082 • Mar 15 '25

Homestyle How to thicken up your chili

What do you add to thicken up your chili. I used tomato paste. It can be a little too much tomato flavor.

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u/Chest_Rockfield Mar 20 '25

  1. I am not a wheat crust on my pizza kinda guy. I let the bad stuff be bad, and as good as it can be. So stay away from my ice cream with your nutritional yeast.

  2. Saying those words doesn't even have a nice mouthfeel. 😝 JK. But seriously I want the textures of my food to be as expected, especially if I'm sharing (and what am I doing with 7qts of chili if not sharing.) Lots of people avoid foods because of texture, don't need to intentionally make mine seem off.

  3. "Creamy" has never been a goal of mine when making chili. There's plenty of things I make I want creamy like corned beef gravy and chocolate espresso martinis. I'll let those be creamy, not this. And I didn't mean any other powder, I don't think any of that belongs in chili. I do, however, think chili needs an exceptionally long simmer time for all of the flavors to completely meld. I literally leave mine on overnight. So opening the lid a little can thicken it as much as you need, but I also like the complexity of tomato paste when it cooks down, and that does an excellent job of thickening as well.

  4. I find that extremely hard to believe. I can pick out ingredients with really unique textures like oatmeal and coconut in things very easily. You know what does have a texture like ground beef that you can add though? More ground beef! I already have these ridiculous Texas chili people claiming we're wasting meat room on beans, may as well add more beef before considering oatmeal.

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u/tangoking Pepper Enthusiast 🌶️ Mar 20 '25
  1. Oats are not wheat.
  2. It's just a small amount of the ingredient. It's in the background.
  3. OP asked for ways to thicken chili. Also, I think that the classic recipes are too "Tomato-ey." Tomato paste, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, fire-roasted tomatoes... are we making Bolognese sauce fra Diavolo here? bruh, easy on the tomatoes!
  4. It's not that much... just enough to add thickness.

Maybe keep an open mind, and try it? Add 1/2 cup of steel-cut oats for a gallon of chili.

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u/Chest_Rockfield Mar 20 '25

I never said oats were wheat. It's also not nutritional yeast, so you should have been able to figure out I wasn't saying it was.

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u/tangoking Pepper Enthusiast 🌶️ Mar 21 '25

Just try it. I care about you and your health. Steel-cut oats are good for you, and a great addition to chili.

Instead of tomato sauce use a good beef bone stock. About 30 mins out when simmering your chili, bring to a boil, plunge oats in and then back the heat off.

https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/health-talk-is-steel-cut-oatmeal-more-nutritious-than-other-kinds-of-oatmeal/