Is Chili Preferable With Beans OR No Beans? Be the Judge!

Which do you prefer? Chili w/ beans or chili without the beans? The controversial matter has always been a favorite debate item of all chili-lovers around the world. To understand how this big debate came to life, let’s first have a look on how and where Chili first begun and how it came to be one of the world’s most loved dishes.

Charles Ramsdell, a writer from San Antonio, Texas says that he is certain that the origins of “Chili” did NOT come from Mexico, due to the fact that one will have a hard time looking for the special dish there. That is extremely peculiar given the fact that Mexicans usually do not change their culinary customs and practices.

Mexicans, however, argue that chili was invented around the 1840s as a replacement for pemmican. They’re usually served at cantinas, created with leftovers from the meals previously prepared and is served for free for drinking customers.

There have also been some beliefs that Chili came from the Southwest, its first recipe written by Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain in the 17th century. The old recipe only consists of onions, antelope meat, tomatoes, and chili peppers. Mind you, no type of bean was present in that recipe. However, no accounts of this were ever recorded.

We now know that chili started with really no beans at all. But how come beans ended up inside chili dishes?

Many believe that chili w/ beans may have been created in the times of the “Great Depression” (during the 1950s) to be able to feed more people. Food and other luxuries were scarce. And beans add “meat” to dishes and they’re very inexpensive as well.

Many have then expressed their love over this new invention, including Westbrook Pegler, a famous columnist who wrote that chili should only be cooked with beef, powdered chili, garlic, onions, tomatoes and beans! Joe Cooper had also authored a famous book on Chili and he noted there that chili w/ beans were widely preferred over the one without.

And thus the well-known controversy continues up until today and most probably with future generations as well.

Because of tradition and heritage, some would prefer their chili without them. But for people who budget tightly and want some health benefits along with it, they may opt to add one or two pounds of fresh beans. At any local market, one pound usually costs just about one dollar. If one adds one dollar worth of these healthy beans into your dish of chili good for four people, your chili dish would now be able to feed eight!

So which camp do you belong to? Do you belong to the modern-loving group of “Chili w/ Beans team”? Or the traditional and respectful “Chili without Beans” team? Whichever you choose, however, the amazing spicy chili will never let you down.