Review: Which Celebrity Chef Has the Best Chili Recipe?

• We made the chili recipes of celebrity chefs Ina Garten, Ree Drummond and Giada De Laurentiis.
• Garten’s recipe, which didn’t call for beans, didn’t quite feel like traditional chili.
• My favorite was the white bean and chicken recipe, which is nothing like a traditional beef chili.

Cold weather is always better with hearty meals, and that includes a pot of chili.

We made three chili recipes from celebrity chefs Ina Garten, Ree Drummond and Giada De Laurentiis and found that not every dish is a typical tomato-based meal.

I started with Garten’s recipe, which didn’t feel like chili at all

Garten’s chili recipe was simple.

I cooked the onion and garlic until translucent, added the spices and herbs, diced bell peppers and whole tomatoes and cooked for about half an hour.

This mixture was very similar to a thick pasta sauce.

Instead of frying the chicken breasts, I seared them in a pan

Although the recipe said to divide the chicken breast covered in olive oil and bake it in the oven, I decided to saute them in a pan as it seemed more efficient.

I sautéed them for about 12 minutes on each side, cut them into cubes and combined them with the tomato and bell pepper sauce.

I let the chili boil for another 20 minutes.

Garten’s recipe did not satisfy my chili craving

This recipe wasn’t as thick as a typical chili and had a strong tomato flavor and lots of bell pepper chunks.

The chicken was juicy but could have benefited from a different spice mix.

Topped with cheese, it was filling, but not what I’d want if I was in the mood for a traditional chili.

A few of my Filipino relatives tried it and liked it, however, without the cheese on top of the white rice.

The next recipe I tried was Drummond’s, which was a traditional chili

For the Pioneer Woman’s “simple, perfect chili” I browned the ground beef in a large pot with minced garlic and drained the fat.

Drummond’s recipe was super easy

I added chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper to the meat and incorporated the tomato sauce.

After mixing, I let the chili simmer for an hour, adding half a cup of water when the mixture seemed a little dry.

The recipe calls for a masa harina paste, which I replaced with corn grits

I didn’t have masa harina, a dry corn-based dough often used as a thickening agent, so I substituted corn grits.

To do this, I mixed the sand with 1/2 cup of water and mixed it into the chili, added more spices and salt to taste, and boiled for about 10 minutes.

Drummond’s recipe made an excellent traditional chili

Drummond’s easy-to-make recipe was meaty, hearty and filling, so it ticked all the boxes for me when it comes to a tasty chili.

De Laurentiis uses ground chicken in her chili recipe

For Laurentiis’ recipe, I cooked chopped onion and minced garlic until translucent and added ground chicken, salt, cumin, fennel, oregano, and chili powder.

After the meat was cooked, I added the coarsely chopped Swiss chard, beans, corn, and chicken broth.

As the recipe said, I was careful to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot

I let the mixture simmer for about an hour, added chili flakes and simmered for about 10 minutes more.

I enjoyed the savory flavor of the crunchy corn, white beans, veggie Swiss chard, and rich chicken flavor and thought it was the perfect, comforting bowl of chili.

Overall, recipes from Drummond and De Laurentiis take the top spot

I liked both Drummond’s traditional chili and De Laurentiis’ chicken version for their robust, savory and complex flavors.

They were different types of chili, but equally delicious for game day.

While Garten’s recipe wasn’t bad, it just didn’t do it for me in terms of what I look for in a chili.

Click through to see the other celebrity chef recipes we’ve put together so far.

This story was originally published on February 11, 2022 and last updated on October 2, 2024.