This beautifully spicy, warming bowl of Mexican chilli is a perfect one-pot meal for these winter months!

Serves 4- PREP/Cooking time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

• 500g lean beef mince
• 1 large white onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced or crushed
• 1 pepper, chopped into cubes (red or yellow)
• 1 fresh chilli, finely sliced (this can be as spicy as you want the dish to be. Bigger chillies tend to be less spicy, so whatever size you use is completely up to you)
• 2tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 2tsp hot chilli powder (again, if you prefer a milder spice flavour, just use a mild chilli powder)
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 beef stock cube
• 1 tin kidney beans
• worcestershire sauce
• 1 square of dark chocolate or 1tsp sugar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• tortilla wraps
• extra sprinklings of cumin and paprika

METHOD:

1. Begin by heating a splash of oil in a pan over a medium heat. When hot, add in the onion and fry until they become translucent.
2. Add in the garlic and chilli, frying for an extra minute and keeping everything moving in the pan as not to burn anything.
3. Next, add in the mince beef. Spend time breaking this up in the pan so that there are no big clumps of meat and so that nothing begins to stick to the bottom of the pan (there’s no need to add any more oil at this point as the mince will ooze a little natural fat to cook everything in)
4. When more than half the mince is browned, add in the spices. Doing this when the meat isn’t fully cooked means that, rather than the spices just flavouring the sauce, they infuse with the mince as it browns! Give everything a good mix together, keeping the mince mixture moving around the pan.
5. Tip in the tin of tomatoes, then refill the tin half way with water and add that too. Add the pepper, crumble in the stock cube, mix and let the mixture bubble away for a few minutes.
6. Turn the heat down to low, season to taste and allow the chilli to simmer and reduce for 20 minutes (stirring occasionally).
7. Splash in some worcestershire sauce and either a square of chocolate or the sugar for sweetness. Chilli is all about balancing out the heat of the chillies and the warmth of the spices, so if you feel like you need to add in more salt or sugar, go for it! Just trust yourself.
8. At this point, add in the drained kidney beans.
9. Continue to simmer for up to another 30 mins. This is dependant on how saucy you like your chilli. I prefer for my chilli to be quite stodgy so I let the liquid evaporate off quite a bit, but again, if you like more sauce, only keep it on the hob for another 20 minutes!
10. And voila! Serve a hot bowlful with a sprinkling of coriander and with rice, over a jacket potato or to use as a dip for my spicy tortilla chips (recipe below!)

For the TORTILLA CHIPS:

1. Simply cut up 4 tortillas (one per person) into halves, and then again into quarters, and once again into eighths so that each tortilla piece is a triangle shape.
2. Place the pieces on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over paprika and cumin powder.
3. Cook on a high heat in the oven for 5 minutes, turning the pieces over half way through.
4. ENJOY!