Wendy's Chili Clone - My Favorite Chili

Note: I originally posted this a couple of years ago. We have recently re-discovered it and have been making it almost every week. Two kids even requested it for their birthday dinners! Today I had to take one kid to the doctor, and we stopped at Wendy's for lunch. We decided to bring some of their chili home so we could comparison taste.

Everybody said they liked mine better. I don't think they were "just saying that" - they are brutally honest when I ask for honesty (on the other hand, I have taught them NOT to say anything rude about anything they are given to eat!). I think I would like to do it again as a blind taste test, though. I told them we would do that later this evening.

Some of the comments about the "real" Wendy's Chili were: "too sweet" "just tastes funny" and "something weird in the spices". There is definitely something in the spice mixture that tastes a little bit sweet. We didn't care for it (we never noticed it till we compared) so I won't try to figure out what it is.

I did look up the ingredients for Wendy's Chili, though:

Water, Chili Base (tomatoes, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), Ground Beef, Vegetable Mix (onions, celery, green peppers), Chili Beans (beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride), Kidney Beans (kidney beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride, disodium EDTA [preservative]), Chili Seasoning (sugar, salt, modified corn starch, chili pepper, onion powder, spices, dextrose, garlic powder, citric acid, disodium inosinate & guanylate, xanthan gum, autolyzed yeast extract, soybean oil, caramel color, extractives of paprika, malic acid, red 40, natural and artificial flavor, silicon dioxide [anticaking agent]).

My beans, by the way, contained just beans, water, and salt.

So there you have it! This is one of the easiest things in the world to make, and makes us happy! I hope you enjoy it too. :)

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Originally posted 11/1/09:

My favorite chili in the world can be found at Wendy's (as in Old Fashioned Hamburgers). So when I found a clone recipe in the book A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes, I was thrilled! However, when I made it I was disappointed. It was decent chili, don't get me wrong. But - having worked at Wendy's all through high school and through much of college - I knew it was NOT a true clone of Wendy's chili. It was close, though, so I set out to tweak it till I got it right.

This is what I've come up with. Your method may vary - but in my opinion it is a pretty darn good copy of the original!

*walks away humming...."single cheese, double cheese, triple all the way"....*

2 pounds ground beef
1 - 29 ounce can tomato sauce
1 - 15 ounce cans kidney beans (with liquid)
1 - 15 ounce cans pinto beans (with liquid)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cans mild tomatoes with green chilies, with liquid
1 - 15 oz can of water (use to rinse out all the cans and dump it in the pot)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 Tablespoons chili powder
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt


Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Crumble into small pieces.
In a large pot, combine the cooked beef with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

For spicier chili, adjust the heat level with black pepper, cayenne pepper or use a spicier tomato/chili.

Serve with grated cheese and fresh diced onion if desired.

**Now if only I could learn to make the liquid chili seasoning! :)

Chili Casserole

I was surfing around for new recipes the other day and found this one. It's a perfect "busy night" recipe - cook ahead and reheat, or turn off the oven a few minutes early and just leave it in there warming. It's very easy and inexpensive, and there are tons of possible variations.

My family must be used to being my taste-testers by now - they all said it was a keeper, and one even said "be sure to put this in your blog!"

Of course, I did not use the recipe as published! Here is exactly what I made. Keep in mind that this serves 8. You can easily half the recipe; in fact, what you see here is the result of my doubling the original to serve 8!

CHILI CASSEROLE

2 lbs ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cans beans, drained (or equivalent in dried beans, cooked)
16 oz. tomato sauce
1 can tomatoes with green chilies
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cook beef, onions and garlic in skillet until brown; drain.
Mix remaining ingredients (except cheese) with meat. Place into a large (11x14?) lasagna pan (If you're doing the half recipe, use a 9x13).

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Top with cheese and cook for 10 minutes more..

Tips and variations:

* The original called for salsa instead of tomatoes with chilis. It was more liquidy the way I did it - however, the kids loved it. The extra liquid was just like chili and they put it in a bowl and lapped it up!

* Ground pork was on sale so that's what I used. We loved the change of taste. Any ground meat would be great here.

* Because of the extra liquid, you could easily throw in some dry pasta. I would not even cook it first - just mix it with the rest, and maybe add a few minutes to the cook time. Or cook it first. Don't expect any extra liquid if you do this.

* You could also easily add less meat, more beans, chopped veggies, whatever you like.