Back when Dave Thomas left his discipleship of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame to go off and start the hamburger chain that we now know as Wendy’s (which he named for his daughter, Melinda) one of my favorite things he did was find a way to reduce waste – and thus costs – while increasing revenue by introducing a chili recipe on the menu. The freshly made hamburgers that had not been sold in time were added to a simmering pot, broken down, and still converted to profit rather than ending up in the dumpster behind the restaurant. It was, and remains, one of the cheapest items on the menu and despite packing a whopping 23 grams of protein and a mere 5 grams of a fat, a large cup contains only 250 calories; a far cry from the typical menu offering at fast food joints. He talked about the “marathon cooking sessions” they did to find the right recipe so they could salvage inventory before it went bad.
The chili plays a role in one story in his now out-of-print autobiography, Dave’s Way. I remember reading in my early twenties because it instantly became a reminder to focus on the things that matter, not just the details, if I wanted to make a lot of money; that, while minutia matters, it’s secondary to selling something and delivering it to the customer at a price higher than the cost it took you to hand it over at the exchange point; that if you can’t accurately measure those costs, you’re going to have a bad time. Specifically, he wrote:
Today, too many MBAs make a lot of money BEFORE they’re thirty, and all they know about business is how to read profit-and-loss statements. And I’m not real sure how well some of these MBAs do reading P&Ls. One time, I was invited up to Cambridge to speak at the Harvard Business School. During the question period, two students in the audience argued with me that Wendy’s was making extra money on our chili because we had already accounted for the meat as a hamburger patty that was cooked too long to be served as a hamburger. At first, I thought they might be funning me. After a while, it was clear they were serious. I had to explain that we still “owned” each patty until we sold it to the customer as either chili or a sandwich. If it was chili, then the meat cost was just a part of the chili. That was one scary experience. It’s the only time I’ve ever thought that dropping out of high school might NOT have been a mistake.
For context on the last line, Dave was a high school drop-out who decided that, despite building a multi-billion dollar business and amassing a nine-figure net worth, he wanted to set a good example and return to get his GED, which he successfully did later in life.
[mainbodyad]Why am I thinking about Dave Thomas and his chili recipe? A few weeks ago, we began looking for versions of Wendy’s chili recipe we could make at home. The one we kept coming across, reprinted on virtually every major recipe site on the Internet, was the adaptation Todd Wilbur did in his book, Top Secret Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones of America’s Favorite Brand-Name Foods. It was simple, easy, and relatively inexpensive (the entire recipe makes a lot of chili and costs $18 per pot, which you can further reduce if you double or triple the proportions and buy your meat and spices in bulk). It gets better the next day and holds for awhile in the refrigerator so it’s great for leftovers whenever someone wants a quick meal that can be reheated almost instantly. You can garnish it or enhance it however you want – with sour cream, grated cheese, saltine crackers, vinegar, it all works – and is, in our opinion, much better than the chili from our local Wendy’s franchise.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to how we made it. Note that we used a 5.5 quart Sonoma Green Le Creuset French oven from Williams-Sonoma this time around and it was barely large enough to contain all of the chili ingredients at the start of the simmering process. If you have a 7 quart pot or oven, use it, instead, or else you are going to have to stir very carefully.
We took 30 ounce cans of tomato sauce, pinto beans, and dark red kidney beans, dumping them in our pot (or, in our case, a French oven), along with all of the bean juices for liquid that will boil away during the cooking process. The recipe technically calls for 29 ounces but we used 30 ounce cans and it didn’t make a difference.
Cut up 1 medium onion or 1 cup of onion. Normally, we prefer to use a red or purple onion for a chili recipe like this but we only had yellow onions on hand so we increased the proportion a bit. When we made it before using a medium red/purple onion, it was really good but it’s no big deal if you don’t have one. Throw it in the pot.
Cut up two juicy, fresh, spicy jalapenos (we left in the seeds for extra heat). Throw them in the pot. Does the actual Wendys chili recipe have jalapenos in it? I should check. I don’t remember it ever being anything other than mild.
Right about now also cut up 1 celery stick but I didn’t take a picture of it. Imagine it. Picture it. Do it. Now, throw that chopped celery stick in the pot.
Wash and dice three tomatoes for your chili. Dump them in the pot.
Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of cumin powder to the chili recipe … we go with two because I’m not as crazy about this particular spice.
Add 3 tablespoons of chili powder to the chili recipe …
Add 1.5 teaspoons of black ground pepper to the chili recipe …
And now for a special word from our portfolio … we used McCormick black pepper. I have shares stuffed in our accounts, my brother’s portfolio, my parents’ brokerage and retirement plans, my in-laws IRAs … It’s a magnificent business. Like most multi-nationals, the strong dollar is making it appear much more expensive. Sales are expected to jump by 4% to 6% but currency headwinds will make almost all of that (at least 3%) disappear if projections turn out to be accurate.
Add 2 teaspoons of salt to the Wendy’s chili recipe …
Add two cups of water to the chili recipe …
Stir the chili ingredients together and put over medium heat while you turn your attention to the ground beef.
Brown two pounds of ground beef for the chili recipe.
Drain the ground beef of its fat and then add the beef to the chili pot, which should still be heating over on the other burner.
Stir the chili pot together and turn the heat up to medium.
Bring the chili to a simmer. You’ll notice the spices start to foam. Once it is simmering, reduce the heat to low but keep it hot enough it simmers non-stop for the next 2 or 3 hours. Stir it every 15 to 20 minutes to break up the film of spices that develops on top.
Thicken, and stir … thicken and stir … some folks like it somewhat of a liquid, others like it almost solid and chunky, full of beef and vegetables. It’s all a matter of taste.
Once you get the chili to your desired consistency, serve immediately. It’s better the second day, once the flavors have had a chance to come together overnight in the refrigerator.
This Wendy’s chili recipe is a great thing to have in your recipe box as an alternative to the white chicken chili recipe we shared back in July of 2014. Though a funny thing has happened since we’ve been introduced to dishes like Dwaejigogi-bokkeum … somehow, someway, I now kind of want to introduce a few more jalapenos and maybe a serrano to crank up the heat even further. Maybe dump in red pepper flakes. You could easily modify this base recipe to make it painfully, and deliciously, tormentingly hot.
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Reader Comments (25)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
stegner
January 29, 2015
'Right about now also cut up 1 celery stick but I didn’t take a picture of it. Imagine it. Picture it. Do it. Now, throw that chopped celery stick in the pot.'
This cracked me up. So emphatic about visualising the celery! 🙂
stegner
January 29, 2015
Replying to stegner
Also, on a totally unrelated note. Have you seen this? It's my current 'frantically share with everyone' thing.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2397929
There's a really neat cameo in the middle.
sd6135
January 29, 2015
Replying to stegner
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Matt
January 29, 2015
Looks like some great chili.
On a side note, I sent you a message through the contact form a while back about this post but I never got a response. I know you get a lot of mail but I'm wondering if you received it, as I am still interested if you're willing to share.
Thanks
jonathan
January 29, 2015
Description of celery was so funny, from Columbus OH, I approve of this article!
joe pierson
January 29, 2015
I notice seniors always get a small chili and sour cream baked potato.
innerscorecard
January 29, 2015
I like to NOT drain the beef fat when I make chili.
jack's smirking revenge
January 29, 2015
I recommend throwing the spices in with the beef when you brown it (put it in the end and mix it around for a minute or so). That's because the spice flavor is fat-soluble, so you can get a much more intense flavor (rather than throwing it in the with veggies, when it's just surrounded by water). Also it's important to actually BROWN the meat, cooking in a very hot pan, and getting the deep carmelized edges - look up the Maillard reaction. Gets you a deeper more complex flavor. And don't throw the fat out! That's where all the flavor is!
Joshua Kennon
January 29, 2015
Replying to jack's smirking revenge
And ... now we're going to have to remake this recipe and give all of this a try to compare. Thanks for the suggestions! I appreciate you taking the time to share them
(You're the second person, besides @innerscorecard, to mention leaving the fat in the final product so I'm going to have to experiment with that just out of curiosity alone. I'm curious as to how far out it will blow the caloric density per serving but if it makes it that much more delicious, it might be worth it.)
Matt
January 29, 2015
Replying to Joshua Kennon
I'm going to add my vote for keeping the fat here. Looks like your meat is pretty lean, so adding the fat shouldn't add too many calories to the dish (it can't be any worse than adding cheese to your chili, can it?), but you'll still get the good flavors.
Is there is a reason to simmer all the other ingredients first and then add the ground meat? I usually do the opposite. If you fry the onion and ground meat in the dutch oven on high heat before adding the spices and other ingredients, you won't lose any of the browned bits. Once there is more liquid in the pot you can stir the bottom to make sure all those flavors get into the chili.
Joshua Kennon
January 29, 2015
I just checked and somehow, someway, I managed to not include you on the response list with the pie recipe. I apologize. It was entirely an oversight and thank you for letting me know. I'll send it out to you in the next five minutes so look for it in your inbox. If it hasn't shown up, check your spam filter since it includes a link to a Google document.
Steve
January 29, 2015
This reminded me of a story my parents tell with fondness of how when they used to run a cafe in a small town in South Korea back in the 1980s, they would take the old drip coffee - and rather than waste it by dumping it - mix it with sugar and ice and top with whip cream and serve it as a fancy iced coffee for double the price of the drip coffee. Ingenious idea and it's been a formative lesson in my life.
vince
January 29, 2015
I always add 3-4 strips of fried bacon/chopped to my chili.
david
January 29, 2015
I have been searching for a decent wendy's chili recipe for a little while so this is a surprising treat to find on my favorite investing blog. Just one thing, though: it appears that the large chili is actually 250 calories. I've actually had great success eating wendy's chili throughout my diet. I probably get it about 10 times a month.
joe pierson
January 29, 2015
Replying to david
The salt is overwhelming though, otherwise I would eat it more often.
Joshua Kennon
January 29, 2015
Replying to david
Oh! You're right! I put the grams in instead of the calories; I'll fix that right now. Thanks for letting me know.
Pablo
January 29, 2015
This would make a good vegetarian chili without the ground beef! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Eric
January 29, 2015
Replying to Pablo
I know it would defeat the repurposing objective, but I wish Wendy's would make a vegetarian or vegan chili.
DP
February 3, 2015
Replying to Pablo
For a vegetarian chili option, make as he shared but substitute the beef with texture vegetable protein (tvp). You can fry it up with the spices, as shared in the previous comments. I like to add a little cream to the chili as well. Very good, and the tvp adds the beefy texture you would get from the meat.
Steven
January 29, 2015
My Chili is on the stovetop now! I think the only time I do any 'real cooking' is when Joshua posts a recipe that looks good (and just as importantly for me, not too hard)
Buckeye
January 29, 2015
Wendy's was founded in my hometown, Columbus. Of the fast food places, it is still my favorite.
When I was 12, I had the honor of meeting Dave Thomas at a charity event. I went up to shake his hand and tell him that I believed he had the best burgers in the business. Dave looked at me in the eye and in a very kind, heartfelt way, he replied, "Thank you very much." He was one of those people you wouldn't know was a bigshot businessman. He was a person you could fit in with any group of people and people would come away loving him.
Dave was one of many from the generation who are terrific executives and people. Dave's legacy lives on with Wendy's, but his involvement with education and adoption initiatives.
Mr.owenr
January 30, 2015
OMG that looks so good.
jerkstores
January 30, 2015
I worked at Wendy's when I was in high school. You're right, there are no jalepenos in it. They have frozen packets of the vegetables ready to go. Chopped yellow onions, celery, and green bell pepper. You're supposed to rinse and drain the beans, which would reduce sodium, but a lot of people do not do that and just dump the beans in there with the brine that comes in the can. The seasoning all comes in a single packet. We've always eyeballed the meat, which is frozen usually from the previous day. We would boil the meat, drain it, and then chop it up with a spatula. Then add the water.
I've always been a fan of Dave Thomas for the way he found a use for the older patties. Now maybe I should get around to adding his book to my list.
Dividend Growth Investor
February 13, 2015
Not sure if you have seen those. But popped on my FB so I thought you might enjoy this:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/marietelling/44-classic-french-meals-you-need-to-try-before-you-die#.ap4DqNDxr
Stephen H
November 29, 2015
I should try this. Lately, been just cheating and using Club House chilli packets. Adds a bit of cost but makes it even easier (not that chilli is hard). Regardless, used 2lb of ground chicken at 2.97 a lb a couple spice packets and some beans and you have an awesome, easy meal for cheap. Going to be looking for more things like this I think!