Keto Chili (Easy Keto Recipe!) (2024)

FAQs

What can you use to thicken keto chili? ›

Is chili keto-friendly? Classic bean-based chili is not keto-friendly, as beans are high in carbohydrates. Luckily you can still make a keto-friendly chili without the beans. All of the traditional chili spices, such as chili powder, ground cumin and smoked paprika, are great flavor-boosters for keto foods.

Black soybeans would be a good keto option if you prefer a keto chili with beans. These legumes have a substantially lower carbohydrate count than the traditional kidney bean and are very high in fiber. In a half cup of canned black soybeans, total carbs are 8g, and fiber is 7g—a net carb count of just 1g!

Fortunately, chili and all kinds of peppers are low in carbohydrates – especially since you don't need to use a lot of them to get a powerful flavor punch, so they are perfect to incorporate into the low-carb or keto diets.

Use All-Purpose Flour or Cornstarch

All-purpose flour and cornstarch are useful for thickening chili, as well as sauces, soups, and stews. However, you'll want to avoid adding these ingredients directly to your recipe, as this will result in clumps.

Mash some beans.

Sorry, Texas chili purists, but beans can totally be your BFF when attempting to thicken chili. In a bowl, use a fork to smash ½ cup to 1 cup of kidney beans, pinto beans, or black beans into a paste. Stir this bean mash into the chili and allow it to simmer for 5 to 10 additional minutes.

Keto-friendly beans

On a strict keto diet, your best bet for beans is to choose either green beans or black soybeans. While green beans are typically prepared more like a vegetable than a bean, black soybeans are a great alternative to other, starchier beans in soups, bean dips, refried beans, or other recipes.

Regular, full fat sour cream is made from cream and contains far more fat than carbs. Therefore, it's considered keto-friendly. However, low fat or nonfat sour cream is not. Full fat sour cream can provide some variety in a keto diet when used as a dip base or incorporated into recipes to boost the fat content.

Yes, Bravado Spice Company Ghost Pepper & Blueberry Hot Sauce is Keto-friendly with 0g grams of net carbs per serving.

Despite being rich in fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals, their carbohydrate content can disrupt the ketosis process in a keto diet. There are various keto-friendly alternatives to Pinto Beans, such as avocado, zucchini, cauliflower, and chia seeds.

Are tomatoes keto? ›

Can you eat tomatoes on the keto diet? "Tomatoes are keto," says Abby Langer, R.D., author of Good Food, Bad Diet. "They're low in carbs, so they fit perfectly into keto." One whole medium tomato contains roughly 5 grams of carbohydrates, of which 1.5 grams are fiber and 3 grams are sugar.

Most beans are too high in carbohydrates for the keto diet, but some may be a good fit — namely, green beans, lupin beans, and black soybeans. You can also consider some alternatives to beans for recipes like chili and soup, such as mushrooms, eggplant, squash, or sausage.

The simple answer is no. Chili typically contains one or more types of beans and many include either added sugar or ingredients with extra sugar. Most canned chili is not keto friendly. Though beans offer some protein, they are high in carbs.

Can I eat a whole chicken on keto? If it's within your protein budget, yes. However, a keto diet doesn't mean you can eat an unlimited amount of protein. Remember that protein can transform into glucose in the body, meaning a large protein intake can affect your ketosis levels if you are not careful.

Use heavy cream as a keto-friendly thickening option for your soups and broths. Heavy cream has more fat than regular whole milk, so you can add it to your soup recipes without worrying about it curdling. Plus, you can whip heavy cream into what looks like whipped cream very quickly, and then add it to your soup.

If you love cooking, you're probably used to recipes that call for cornstarch as a thickening agent. But cornstarch is typically forbidden on Keto, with a whopping 116g of net carbs per cup. That's enough to knock you and your 5 best friends out of ketosis.

Easy-to-access alternatives are wheat flour, arrowroot flour, and rice flour. These are good alternatives to cornstarch because they are more nutritious and contain fewer carbohydrates and calories. Xanthan and guar gum are much stronger thickeners than cornstarch, but they can be harder to obtain and use.