Fast-Food Style Chili, Inspired by Wendy's
A mild, beefy, tomato-heavy chili with kidney and pinto beans, onion, celery and green pepper, simmered low and slow like the drive-thru favorite. Inspired by, not official.
Inspired by Wendy's. Not an official Wendy's recipe: the company does not publish one, and nothing here claims to reproduce it. Dave Thomas founded Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, on November 15, 1969, and chili has been on the menu since the first restaurant. Chowhound reports that because Wendy's used fresh rather than frozen beef, Thomas created the chili to use up leftover cooked burgers, and quotes his 1992 autobiography "Dave's Way" on the point; it also reports the company sold 83 million servings in the US in 2020.
🇺🇸 This one is American
A mild, beefy, tomato-heavy chili with kidney and pinto beans, onion, celery and green pepper, simmered low and slow like the drive-thru favorite. Inspired by, not official.
🇺🇸 The original
The Texas bowl of red is chunks of beef simmered with dried chiles and spices until tender. No beans, and in the strict version no tomatoes. See the Texas Bowl of Red (San Antonio Chili con Carne) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Beans last
The tomato base gets its long simmer first, and the beans go in for only the final 10 minutes so they stay whole and tender (Taste of Home).
Soft vegetables first
Cooking the pepper, onion and celery before the beef lets them melt into the sauce, for a smooth, mild bowl.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat and cook the green pepper, onion and celery 5 minutes, until tender.
- Step 2
Add the beef and cook, breaking it up, 6 to 8 minutes, until browned and no longer pink (160°F). Drain off the fat.
- Step 3
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, Worcestershire and all the seasonings and bring to a boil.
- Step 4
Lower the heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring now and then. Taste: Taste of Home says a little more garlic powder and some onion powder push it toward the restaurant flavor.
- Step 5
Add the beans and simmer uncovered 10 minutes, just until hot. Don't boil them to mush.
- Step 6
Serve with your toppings.
Fast-Food Style Chili, Inspired by Wendy's
Serves 6 (about 1 1/4 cups each) · about 7 cups · 2 hr 5 min total
Vegetables and beef
- 1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lb ground beef
Simmer
- 1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 to 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Beans
- 3/4 cup canned red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (half a 16 oz can)
- 3/4 cup canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained (half a 16 oz can)
To serve
- Optional: shredded cheddar, chopped onion, sour cream, saltines or corn chips
Method
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat and cook the green pepper, onion and celery 5 minutes, until tender.
- Add the beef and cook, breaking it up, 6 to 8 minutes, until browned and no longer pink (160°F). Drain off the fat.
- Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, Worcestershire and all the seasonings and bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring now and then. Taste: Taste of Home says a little more garlic powder and some onion powder push it toward the restaurant flavor.
- Add the beans and simmer uncovered 10 minutes, just until hot. Don't boil them to mush.
- Serve with your toppings.
Adapted from Taste of Home, "Copycat Wendy's Chili" by Mandy Naglich (12 servings), halved to 6. Inspired by, not official. Taste of Home. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Start with 1/2 tbsp chili powder for a mild, fast-food-style bowl; go up to 1 tbsp if you like.
- Make it the way the chain started: chop up leftover cooked burger patties and add them in step 3 instead of raw beef.
- It freezes well; Taste of Home's full batch is 12 servings.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Wendy's chili is made from leftover burgers. Documented as the company story: Dave Thomas said so in "Dave's Way" (Chowhound), and Wikipedia (citing Mashed) says unsold cooked patties are chopped into the chili.
- On the menu since day one. Documented (Wikipedia; Chowhound).
- Which beans Wendy's uses. Disputed: secondhand reports of the ingredient list disagree on pinto beans vs "chili beans"; we could not read Wendy's own list. This version uses kidney and pinto.
- This is the real recipe. Folklore: it is a copycat, inspired by, not official.
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