Here is our take on an easy kid friendly beef chili! It’s loaded with tons of spices and flavor, meat, and beans. The recipe is based off of our best beef chili, which we absolutely love but is a bit chunkier for kids. It’s a true crowd pleaser, but this one hits home more with the kiddos. It’s one of those recipes that’s really so simple to make and every time people come over they always ask for the recipe. You can make it with both beef or turkey.

What you need to make kid friendly beef chili + substitutions:
- Ground beef- We typically use ground beef in this recipe to make it classic. You can also substitute with ground turkey or chicken, but we love beef the best.
- Yellow onion- Onion is ideal in pretty much most of our recipes. It adds so much amazing flavor!
- Green bell peppers- We love throwing in bell peppers. They add color, nutrition, and also a nice bulk to this beef chili. For the kids, we dice them small and could have made them even smaller!
- Tomato sauce- Typically we love diced tomatoes in chili, but we find that using tomato sauce helps with texture for kids. So we use that for this recipe!
- Red kidney beans- We personally love to use kidney beans and that’s what most people use. If you want to use a mix of beans you can, but you want to make sure they’re similar to kidney beans.
- Chicken bone broth- We have been making homemade broth so that is what we used, but feel free to substitute with chicken/beef stock or vegetable broth. Our favorite store bought broth is Kettle and Fire. You can use our code DADDIOSKITCHEN for 20% off! You only use a little bit so if you HAD to use water you could but I definitely suggest bone broth or stock!
If you love this, you may also love:
Kid Friendly Beef Chili
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp avocado oil as needed
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 green bell pepper diced very small
- 2 lbs ground beef or ground turkey
- 2 15oz cans tomato sauce
- 2 15oz cans kidney beans drained
- ½ cup chicken bone broth optional
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1½ – 2 tsp sea salt more or less for taste
- 1½ tsp paprika
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 dried bay leaf
Instructions
- Heat a medium to large stock pot. Next, add in the avocado oil. Cook the diced onions and bell pepper until cooked down. About 3-4 minutes.
- Next, add in the ground beef and season with all of the seasonings including the bay leaf. Cook beef until browned and no longer pink. About 5-6 minutes.
- Add in the tomato sauce, kidney beans, and stock, but you can wait to see if you'd like it thinner after it cooks down. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Add salt if needed.
- Serve in bowl and enjoy! We love to top ours with shredded cheddar cheese, cilantro, sour cream or greek yogurt, avocado, and lime. Enjoy!





Any recommendations if I wanted to do this in the slow cooker?
Hi! Brown the beef first in a pan then add it to slow cooker with all of the other ingredients. Set the slow cooker to low for 4-5 hours! Should work great let us know! Thanks!
Pingback: Cozy Fall Recipes - Daddio's Kitchen
Wow! Not sure this could have been a bigger hit! I’m always skeptical if something says kid friendly, but even my more particular kiddo of the two asked for seconds and licked the bowl. Great, easy recipe! Thank you!
Yay! glad it was a hit! thank you for sharing!