A simple recipe for chilli con carne that serves one person.  Served with long grain white rice and tortilla chips today!

There are many side dishes you can serve with a chilli: 7 Ways to Serve Chilli con Carne, I’ll typically just use what I currently need to use up – and I have the last of a bag of long grain rice and the last few tortilla chips in a bag (I’d bought those intending to make nachos that didn’t happen before I’d nibbled too many of them from the packet to make it worthwhile!).

I don’t usually cook with long grain rice, I switched to basmati rice about 20 years ago, but for some reason decided to give long grain rice another go – and it’s really disappointing after using basmati rice for so long, but I’d bought 1Kg, so had to eat it a LOT of times to get through the bag!

If I’m buying a cheap chilli con carne, then I do enjoy the depth of flavour in the Lidl Chef Select range, but they’ve gone up in price in recent months, so I’m back to making chilli con carne from scratch again at home using the microwave oven, which offers a cheaper end result!

If you want to scale this recipe up to serve two people, then add an extra 1 minute to each of the cooking times as the larger the quantity of food you cook, the longer it takes for it to all be cooked.

Chilli Con Carne Ingredients: 

• 100 grams beef mince, I use frozen mince for convenience of pouring!
• A tiny splash of oil
• 75 grams onion (about ¼ of a small onion), finely chopped/sliced – I keep frozen onions in the freezer
• A splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1½ teaspoons of chilli powder, or ½ a fresh chilli grated
• Optional: Red kidney beans, or baked beans
• 75-100g white rice to serve; tortilla chips to serve
• Optional: Feel free to improvise and add in your own bits and bobs!
• A little grated cheddar to spread on the top

For this quick chilli con carne I will typically omit the beans because it means opening a new can and using 1/3rd of a can of kidney beans (drained).  If I’ve already opened a tin of baked beans and have some leftover beans in the fridge I’d add 1-2 tablespoons into the mix.

Method: 

1. Cook your rice first, I cook rice in a microwave steamer.  Once cooked it can sit, covered, while you make the chilli. Alternatively, you can buy a pouch of ready cooked rice, which you can microwave in about 2 minutes (I dislike the texture of these and they are very pricey for what is just ‘plain rice’).
2. Place the chopped onion into a microwave safe dish with a tiny splash of oil – stir it round to ensure the onion’s fully coated in oil.  Microwave on full power (800 watts) for 2 minutes to soften.
3. Add the (frozen) beef mince to the onion, stirring the two together, microwave on full power for 2 minutes.  Ensure the beef has all browned.
4. Add the Worcestershire sauce and chilli powder and mix through. Microwave for 1 minutes.  Stand it if you can for 2-3 minutes, to let the flavours mingle a little bit.
5. Serve with the hot rice and a hand full of tortilla chips!

Menu Cost 60p:

The mince costs 43p/100g, the onion is about ¼ of a small onion, so about 3p.  The rice is about 5p worth and the tortilla chips are about 3p worth.  So this chilli con carne cost me about 60p to make, a full £1 saving on buying a ready meal.

Adaptable, flexible, toss in what you’ve got and what you like to see in a chilli con carne.