Habanero Hellfire Chili Recipe

I came, I cooked, I conquered.

I never ate chili, but I thought I'd try something new. I chose this recipe because I love spicy and the reviews were pretty convincing. And I'm glad I chose it. What a great recipe to get me in to chili. I feel like I've been missing out all my life. This recipe has a nice heat to it. The spiciness wasn't overwhelming but as others said its relative. I like spicy and I rarely find things too hot. I made slight alterations to this recipe. I cooked it in a slow cooker overnight. I used pork sausage (jimmy dean hot) instead of regular ground pork. I added more garlic (about 6 cloves) and omitted the water (my slow cooker had no room for water by the time I added everything else). And I added about 1/4 cup of brown sugar. My husband loved the chili but asked if I could add more beans the next time. I think there were enough beans. Maybe next time I might add more bacon as it wasn't noticeable but other than that it was a great recipe. Living in California made finding the ingredients easy. I would recommend this recipe and will definitely be making it again!!! Just an update, still my favorite chili. I just added a little Worstershire sauce (1.5 tsp) and that gave it a little extra flavor. And seriously if the recipe is too hot, add sugar or honey and it will mellow out the heat. Pre-sugar my husband was sweating. Post sugar he could handle the heat. I also think cooking it in the slow cooker reduces heat but melds the flavors more.

I've been making this chili for a couple of years now. Won my annual chili-cookoff at work twice with it, the first time going by the recipe. We also have a licensed gourmet cook as one of the main judges and he's rated it the best chili he's ever had! The Anaheim peppers where I get them tend to be pretty big so I go with four. Those are the key to making this chili taste good. I've gone to using 4 Anaheim, 1 green bell, 2 pablano, 5/6 jalapenos, 5/6 serranos and usually six habaneros. When doing the peppers, I usually dice everything pretty big and then mince the serranos and habaneros. I do remove the seeds but not the membranes (initially I did, not anymore) and it does provide the extra kick. I usually get two lbs of ground and cook in a lb of Jimmy Dean sausage after doing the bacon. Then I add the onions/peppers and cook them up for a bit. On the side I usually do the two cups of water and stick the two beef bullion cubes there, once done, I pour a bottle of beer (usually a bottle of Yuengling lager. I use the French's "Chili-O", two packets or you can buy it by the huge container for around $15 on Amazon and it will make at least a dozen batches. I do the bacon and meat afterwards in an eight quart cast iron dutch oven. Add the peppers/onions and garlic there and cook in the chili powder. But since the dutch oven will not hold all the contents of everything else, I transfer it all into a stainless steel stock pot (12 quart) and then add the rest of the i

So great! It has such a dynamic flavor profile. We even amped it up a bit by adding some ghost pepper powder and allowed it to develop flavor in the crockpot over night after following the recipe. Delicious!

This is really good chili but whoooeeee it is hot! I even put only 4 jalapeno/habanero chili's ... I couldnt' find anaheim chili's (don't know what kind they are - mild?) used new Mexico dried chili's (soaked and blended with some beef broth) - they're kinda fruity and mildly spicy. I used an orange pepper vs. a green bell pepper (like the flavor better). I also used beef broth vs. water and boullion. MY DH likes beans so added 2 cans of drained/rinsed kidney beans in addition to the chili beans. The next time I make this I will use the whole 6 OZ can of tomato paste vs just 3 OZ Very good flavor - the "boys" really liked this chili. Served it with toppings of cheddar, diced sweet onion and sour cream. yum

Won 2nd place in a work chili contest using this recipe as a base. There were close to 15 chili's entered. It had great flavor, but was not too heated. Everyone who tried it had a great response. Here are my alterations. 1. 1 cup of ginger ale instead of beer. 2. Only used 1 can of whole tomatoes. 3. Added 1 tsp of salt. 4. Did not use chili paste. (lack of availability) 5. 36 oz of sausage/beef mixture. (I'm too cheap for ground round) 6. Smoked the meat prior to adding to the chili. (Highly recommend this)

Check the comment by Mark H. on here. This has become the family recipe for chili. I used 8 habaneros, 4 red and green jalapenos, and 6 serranos. I also used a red bell and some sweet peppers. I also added diced black olives and potato flakes (dish is a little under salted and soupy). Just won the work cook-off. This is the best recipe.

This was delicious. I decided before making it that I would reduce the fresh peppers by a third, and I like hot food. Also I left out the water and added more beer instead. The chile paste was a new idea for me, I doubled that. Served it in huge bowls with buttered toast. Yummy! Thankyou, this is my new chili recipe.

Excellent chili, perhaps the best I've ever had! I made a few substitutions based on what was available at my grocery store. For the ground meat, I used 2.5 lbs of meatloaf mix - a blend of beef, pork, and veal. I could not find habaneros, anaheims, or chile paste, so I added extra jalapenos and a good helping of habanero-based hot sauce. It came out hot, but not overwhelmingly so. I also added a can of sweet whole kernel corn and 2 extra bell peppers - one red and one yellow. Extra garlic too. The extra meat and vegetables resulted in a nice thick consistency, especially after an additional hour of cooking. My batch did not come out soupy at all as some other reviewers mentioned. Next time I will use a full pound of bacon, hopefully some habaneros and/or other hotter pepper varieties instead of relying on hot sauce, an extra beer (and less water), and perhaps another variety of meat. I'll probably use diced instead of whole tomatoes too - the whole ones can be broken up after cooking, but I'd rather have smaller chunks to start with.

Hello... I agree with Chef Mike. I cooked this chili yesterday for our semi annual chili 'cook off' and was awarded "best chili" out of about 12 entries... Did not deviate from the recipe other than using the seeds from half of the Hab's and Jalop's and adding a can of tomato sauce because it seemed thicker than I prefer. Simmered for about three hours. Thought it would be MUCH hotter than it actually turned out.

This recipe is what I've been searching for! the only thing I didn't do was add the beans (personal preference). I also used beef stock instead of water. I started with 5 cups and reduced down to about 2 cups. Spicy and delicious.

This is my third batch of this chili this fall 2025. I have jalapeño plants and habanero plants. Instead of Anaheim peppers I used poblano peppers. In this batch I put in 12 habanero (I kept the seeds and membrane in 2) and six jalapeño I also reduced the crushed red pepper, two 1/2 teaspoon

I've been making this chili (exact recipe) for a few years now and it never disappoints.

I've been making this recipe for years. All my friends know how spicy it can get! I always have chopped serranos/habaneros/jalapenos on the side for extra toppings in case it's not quite hot enough!

Love this recipe. The only Chilli recipe I use. The only thing extra I do is I add 2 extra cans of beans. Only because we like our with a lot of beans.

I made this for my work chili cook off and took 1st prize

I love this recipe, the best chili ever.

Best Chili recipe ever! Fair amount of dishes, time, & work but the taste is phenomenal. I increased amount of chilies for more spiciness. Froze leftovers. NOTE: freezing definitely decreases spiciness so plan accordingly.

I have been this receipe for years now my family enjoys it always something new in the mix lately I am adding spicy smoke sausages

We'll I made this exactly as the recipe says. Gotta say I love the taste. It has a nice peppery burn, but I wouldn't call it hellfire. I think like others my store does not have actual habenero, but bonnet peppers. I will make this again and add a hotter pepper. Still very delicious overall