Skillet black bean chilli with an olive chimichurri

This isn’t a slow cooker chilli recipe. Instead, it’s a super quick skillet chilli recipe that comes together over the flame. It’s part of my ‘easy yet elevated’ dinner series.

Not to worry, there is no flavour sacrifice from making it on a skillet rather than the slow cooker. This skillet chilli recipe calls for cilantro stalks, diced super small, with garlic and onion sautéed in rendered bacon fat. It’s glorious. It’s my way of supercharging it with flavour to make up for the fact that we are making it much quicker than a slow cooker would.

A can of black beans and a can of chopped tomato and you are on your way to a super easy weeknight dinner. If you have the time, serve guacamole and chips alongside this skillet chilli. Whip up a ginger and cilantro margarita, too. Make it a whole thing!

The toppings are where you can have the most fun here. I love something pickled with this dish. Either pickled onions, which make a beautiful pink pop against the chilli, or pickled chilli peppers like guindilla peppers.

If you can get your hands on some cotija cheese, that would be much more authentic than the feta I used. In Australia, I haven’t been able to find any cotija cheese, unfortunetly.

Save some of those crispy bacon bits for the garnish. I love to do this because it’s a really cool way to display what flavours were used as part of the dish. I love to be able to see what’s inside or what made up the dish.

Sour cream goes really nicely here, too. I chose to garnish with an olive chimichurri, though a pico de gallo would be so delicious here. Also, if you are short on time, just grab a jar of salsa from the shops and garnish using that. This skillet chilli wants to be garnished with all the toppings!

Ingredients:

Skillet chilli:

1 tbsp olive oil

3 slices bacon, chopped into small pieces

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can finely diced tomato

1 brown onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 small jalapeño, deseeded, diced

cilantro/ coriander stalks from one bunch, diced

Seasoning:

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or 2 tsp

salt and pepper

Olive chimichurri:

bunch of cilantro/ coriander, finely chopped

bunch of parsley, finely chopped

1/3 cup green sicilian olives, halved

1/2 a long red chilli, deseeded and finely diced

1 garlic clove, grated

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

heavy pinch of salt

Extras for garnish:

sour cream

feta or cotija cheese

chopped guindilla peppers or pickled onions

fresh cilantro/ coriander leaves

Method:

To prepare the olive chimichurri, chop all ingredients and combine in a small mixing bowl and set aside.

In a large pan over low-medium heat, drizzle in olive oil and add bacon pieces. Crisp on both sides, about 6 mins on each side. The bacon fat will render out — we will use this fat to sauté the veggies in next.

Once the bacon is golden brown and super shatteringly crispy, remove from the pan and leave on a paper-lined plate to cool.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the onion, garlic, cilantro stalks, jalapeño and a pinch of salt. Sauté for 4-5 minutes then add a shot glass full of water to help soften up. After another 4-5 minutes, add the seasonings and sauté for 2-3 mins. Add diced tomato and reduce heat to medium-low. Allow to cook down for about 10 minutes.

Once the tomato has reduced some of it’s liquid, add black beans and bacon bits. Stir to combine and take off the heat.

Serve with sour cream, feta, olive chimichurri and pickled onions or guindilla peppers.

Enjoy with margaritas, Mexican beer, guacamole, salsa and chips. Extra lime is always a good idea.