Gordon Ramsay’s chilli con carne is a smoky, thick bowl of spiced beef mince with kidney beans, fresh and tinned tomatoes, and a whole cinnamon stick that makes the whole thing sing. Ready in 35 minutes.
This recipe comes from The F Word Season 3, where he cooked it in a head-to-head against Sara Cox and won the blind tasting. On the show he says to keep the skin on fresh tomatoes because “for something like a chilli, something easy and straightforward like that, keeping the skin on is absolutely fine.”
The technique that separates this from a basic mince stew is the two-pan start. Aromatics sweat in one pan while the mince browns hard in another, so the meat gets proper colour without steaming in onion water. Those two pans merge after the spices are toasted, and that is where the depth comes from.
Gordon Ramsay Chilli Con Carne Recipe
Course: DinnerCuisine: MexicanDifficulty: Easy5
servings15
minutes35
minutes485
kcal50
minutesA bold, warmly spiced beef chilli from Ramsay’s F Word, simmered with paprika, cumin, and a whole cinnamon stick then finished with kidney beans and served with chive soured cream. Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
500g (1 lb 2 oz) good quality beef mince
1 large onion or 2 banana shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded (keep seeds for more heat)
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
Olive oil, for frying
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
3 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
400g (14 oz) tin chopped tomatoes
100-200ml (3-7 fl oz) chicken or beef stock
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
400g (14 oz) tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper
200ml (7 fl oz) soured cream
Handful of chives, chopped
Boiled rice, to serve
Directions
- Sweat the aromatics: Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, red chilli and thyme. Cook gently for 5-6 minutes until soft but not coloured.
- Brown the mince separately: In a second pan, heat a splash of oil over high heat. Add the mince and break it up. Cook for 6-8 minutes until properly browned with crispy edges.
- Toast the spices: Add the cumin, paprika and oregano to the aromatics pan. Stir for 1-2 minutes until they release their aroma. Tip the browned mince in and mix well.
- Build the sauce: Stir in the fresh and tinned tomatoes. Cook down for 5 minutes. Pour in the stock and tomato puree, then drop in the cinnamon stick and bay leaf.
- Simmer: Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens.
- Add the beans: Stir in the drained kidney beans. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until they warm through and absorb the flavour. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve: Mix chopped chives into the soured cream. Spoon chilli over rice with the soured cream on the side.
Notes
- Ramsay says you can use chicken or beef stock. Chicken gives a lighter result, beef makes it richer. The chilli keeps in the fridge for 3 days and freezes well for up to 3 months.
FAQs
Why brown the mince in a separate pan?
Most chilli recipes tell you to brown the mince with the onions. Ramsay uses a second pan on high heat because he wants hard colour on the meat before it goes anywhere near liquid.
When mince hits a crowded pan with onions and garlic, it releases moisture and steams instead of browning. That grey, boiled texture is exactly what he is avoiding. A hot, near-empty pan lets the mince spread out and actually caramelise.
Once it has crispy edges, it gets tipped into the aromatics pan. All those browned bits dissolve into the spice base and become the backbone of the flavour.
His chilli beef lettuce wraps take this even further by draining the mince through a sieve to keep every piece crispy.
Why add a whole cinnamon stick?
This is the ingredient most people question, but it is doing more work than any other spice in the pot. A whole stick releases its oils slowly during the simmer, adding a warm sweetness that rounds out the cumin and paprika without tasting like dessert.
Ground cinnamon would be a mistake here. It dissolves too fast, turns the sauce cloudy, and gives you that biscuit flavour where you do not want it. A whole stick can be fished out at the end, which means you get the warmth without the heaviness.
Ramsay uses the same whole-stick technique in his meatballs in coconut broth from the Ultimate Cookery Course, where the cinnamon sits in the broth the entire time.
Why use both fresh and tinned tomatoes?
Tinned tomatoes give body and consistency because they have been cooked down during processing. Fresh tomatoes give brightness and juice that the tin cannot. Together they balance each other out.
If you only use tinned, the sauce tastes flat and slightly metallic. If you only use fresh, it takes much longer to cook down and the flavour stays sharp rather than deep.
Ramsay chops 3 fresh tomatoes and adds them at the same time as the tin. They break down during the 20-minute simmer and you end up with patches of fresh sweetness running through the thicker base.
Why do the beans go in at the end?
Kidney beans are already cooked in the tin. If they simmer for the full 20 minutes with everything else, they absorb too much liquid, turn chalky, and start falling apart into the sauce.
Ramsay adds them in the last 5-10 minutes. That is enough time for the beans to warm through and soak up some of the spiced tomato flavour, but they still hold their shape and give you that bite when you eat them.
It also means the sauce thickens properly before the beans go in. If the beans are in from the start, they release starch and change the texture of the whole pot.
What makes the quick version from his cookbook different?
In the Ultimate Cookery Course, Ramsay has a stripped-back chilli built as a topping for chilli dogs. It serves 2, simmers for 20 minutes, and skips several ingredients that define the F Word version.
No kidney beans, no cinnamon stick, no fresh tomatoes, no stock, and no thyme. Instead he adds Worcestershire sauce for sharpness and a pinch of sugar to balance the tinned tomatoes. He also uses whole cumin seeds rather than ground, which give little bursts of flavour when you bite into them.
That version is designed to sit on top of a sausage in a bun. This F Word version is the full meal, built to eat from a bowl with rice and garlic bread on the side.
