Wendy's Chili (Copycat)

The formula

Every ingredient resolved to grams, expressed against the recipe's own base — next to the median of all 163.

	this recipe	typical
liquid	63%	23%
fat	1%	1%
aromatics	12%	16%
sweetener	1%	0%
salt	0%	0%
vegetables and beans	71%	58%
collagen idx	0.8	0.8
marbling idx	0.6	0.6

Adapts cleanly: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, nut-free (documented swaps, applied on the dish page)

Ingredients

Weights computed by us.

27 g	2 tbsp neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola
567 g	1 1/4 lb ground beef chuck (80/20)
6 g	1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
284 g	2 cups diced yellow onion (from 1 medium [10 oz] onion)
42 g	1/2 cup (1/4-inch) chopped celery (about 2 [1.5 oz] stalks)
28 g	1 medium jalapeno (1 oz), seeded and finely chopped (about 2 tbsp)
7 g	1 tbsp. ground cumin
8 g	1 tbsp chili powder
1420 g	6 cups water
425 g	1 (15-oz) can tomato sauce
850 g	2 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
284 g	1 (10-oz) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained (such as Rotel)
850 g	2 (15-oz) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
425 g	1 (15-oz) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
425 g	1 (15-oz) can Great Northern (or Cannellini) beans, drained and rinsed
12 g	1 tbsp granulated sugar
	Crumbled saltines and hot sauce (such as Tabasco), for serving (optional)

Method: 3 steps, published by www.simplyrecipes.com — open the original ↗ or use bake mode for a follow-along with a screen that stays on.

“This is a pretty tasty recipe, but bears not the slightest resemblance to the chili served at my local Wendy's. That one has no tomato pieces, only a single bean variety--kidney beans--, no jalapenos, and is thin and watery. i don't think I've seen any celery,” — a cook

“This is an okay chili recipe...it's not really that close an approximation. I'm giving this 3 stars on it's merits as a chili, but it should maybe be 2 for claiming to be a copycat of Wendy's chili, because while it's the same kind of chili (sort of sweet/midd” — a cook, 3★