Let's settle this age old debate

I'm not a vegan.

Sure, if you want them there. Saying beans don't belong in chili is like saying noodles don't belong in soup. Or cheese doesn't belong in sandwiches.

adding beans makes it a bean stew, not chili.

Chili without beans is pretty dull.

Bean-eater here. If you believe this then you're making shitty chili, and no amount of beans is going to help. Git gud.

Can't believe no ones brought it up yet but the only reason beans were ever used in chili was during the Great Depression when people couldn't really afford to use just beef so they substituted that with using some beans cause it has a similar texture but true good ol fashion chili has just the meet unless your a vegetarian of course.

And it's stuck around because people realized it tastes pretty good.

Typically I only use beans when I'm using ground meat (or vegetarian chili). For stew meat, I leave the beans out.

This argument is silly to me because why would you want to limit what varieties of food you are willing to eat?

adding beans makes it meat and bean stew, not meat stew.

chili is a stew you abysmal retard.

You can't eat poor people food silly. We have to show that we're above the lower class.

Why wouldn't you put beans in chili?

because some people were raised by idiots who were raised by other idiots(repeat as necessary per your family history) who were raised by poor settlers/immigrants/migrants/etc types who made due the best they could with what was available to them, but had the misfortune to raise idiots who, due to the ever ubiquitous human phenomenon of "nostalgia", took their hard life and conditions as some ridiculous form of "proud heritage" that should be passed down through the generations instead of seeing it as something to improve upon.

You have some guy living in a city who has the perfectly reasonable idea to "make his own way" and own his own land and all that, he takes his family and moves somewhere and builds a little shack and farms his land or whatever, and the whole time he's thinking hes going to pass this on to his kids and they are going to expand on it and build a bigger house and have a better life, but then his stupid kids just take his house and make it some form of shrine of simple country living and foam at the mouth while jerking themselves off eating clods of dirt and marrying their cousins.

..eventually the house falls down, so they build another shack, and that gets blown away by a tornado, so they park a trailer on the spot. And they've long since stopped farming because the govt pays them not to, but they still proudly eat clods of dirt every sunday after church.

Chickpeas in chili is god tier

You must really hate beans.

This

In my version of chili, it's all about textural contrast. That's why I add zucchini, mushrooms, and beans, then top with sour cream and onion and serve with toast. Sometimes add frozen corn too.

>Brown, black and white beans
>Corn
>Peas
>Ground beef
>Red onions
>Red, orange and green bell peppers
>Whatever chili I have on hand

Serve in a bowl, on Basmati Rice topped with diced cucumber.

I swear, I'm the only person who adds cucumber.
My chili is usually spicy so the cucumber cools it down a bit.

This isn't chili you fuck

I sometimes add beans. It makes it feel like more of a meal than just a bowl of meat.

If you put beans in it than its not chili, it's stew.

Beans if the chili is intended to be a standalone meal so it's a bit heartier.
Without beans if it's going on top of a hot dog or spaghetti or another foodstuff.

I don't know anyone boring enough to make the exact same chili recipe everytime, so sometimes they're there and sometimes they aren't. Only autists care.

The real debate is whether or not you put tomatoes in chili.

Of course, the answer is "fucking no".

There is no debate. Beans are a must in chili. Otherwise the meal just doesn't sit right on the stomach after, plus they even out the texture. If you're eating chili without beans, just eat taco soup or some other ground beef dish.

This. I put beans and bell peppers in my chilli

The only reason it's a debate is that most people apparently don't realize that chili isn't a single dish/recipe. Just by the nature of it being created along the border and spreading from there, different regions tend to have very different traditional versions of what's considered chili. Sometimes it's even dependant on what kinds of chiles are available locally (because certain areas grow chiles that are the basis of traditional recipes, but are hard as fuck to get outside of that area). For example, I live in New Mexico, and what's considered chili here is almost nothing like most (but not all) Texan chili I've had. Flyover recipes that spread by diffusion are even more different. Insisting there are rules for chili is stupid as fuck, because what chili is depends entirely on where you and the recipe comes from.

Seconding this.

>Corn
>Peas
>Basmati Rice
>Cucumber

Just no. I'm not even a snob about chili, but those ingredients just aren't right. I don't think I've ever even seen them a chili recipe before.

This is true. Texan that went to new mexico recently here, and there was this "green chile" stuff EVERYWHERE I WENT there, including in the chili. I liked it though.

Just wish you guys knew how to make real mexican food. No refried beans at any of the mexican places I ate. ;)

>shitting on corn in chili

Corn juxtaposes with the salty/savory flavor of the rest of the chili. [spoiler]Plus it adds visual interest to your poo.[/spoiler]

Cucumber and peas can fuck right off, though.

Anyone with a strong opinion either way is retarded. who gives a fuck. These arguments only happen because someone is telling someone else what to call their food, it's a conflict over authority, has nothing to do with what's 'right'.

That said, how the duck do beans give anything a 'kick'?

If you want to add beans, add beans. If you don't want to add beans, don't add beans. I don't get why this is such an argument. I also agree with these people

I put beans in chili that I'm eating by itself and no beans for chili I'm putting on or with other things.

The beans give standalone chili a heartier texture that you might get with another food item.

>I don't put meat in my chili but still want good protein
Meat is objectively best. Have fun with your subpar protein and pleb chili
Shut up vegfag meatless chili is an abomination