Smoky Three-Bean Chili with Skillet Cornbread
The first-cold-night dinner and the highest family score on the board. A deep, smoky chili that eats hearty thanks to the bulgur, with warm cornbread to dunk. One pot, feeds everyone twice.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 6
- Method
- One pot
Stir bulgur into the chili near the end. It plumps up and gives a genuinely meaty, toothsome bite with no fake crumbles at all - it's the trick that makes a bean chili eat like a hearty one. Add it in the last 15 minutes so it stays tender, not mushy.
What actually matters here
- Bloom the spices in the oil.
- Bulgur in near the end for a meaty bite.
- Cornbread from scratch (flax egg keeps it vegan).
Ingredients
Serves 6.
Chili
- 1onion
- 4garlic cloves
- 2 tbspchili powder
- 1 tbspcumin
- 2chipotles in adobo
- 1 cancrushed tomatoes
- 1 canpinto beans
- 1 cankidney beans
- 2 cupsbroth
- 1/2 cupbulgur
Cornbread
- 1 cupcornmeal
- 1 cupflour
- 1 tbspbaking powder
- 1flax egg
- 1 cupplant milk
- 3 tbspoil
- 2 tbspmaple
Before you start
- Make the flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water, let it gel 5 minutes).
- Heat the oven to 400F for the cornbread.
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, chop the chipotles. Drain and rinse the beans.
Method
- Soften the onion and garlic in oil in a big pot, then add the chili powder, cumin and chopped chipotle and cook 1 minute until fragrant (blooming the spices in oil deepens their flavor).
- Add the crushed tomatoes, both beans, and the broth; bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes.
- Stir in the bulgur and simmer another 15 minutes, until the bulgur is plump and tender and the chili is thick and meaty. Taste for salt and smoke.
- Meanwhile, make the cornbread: whisk the dry ingredients, then the flax egg, plant milk, oil and maple; pour into an oiled skillet or pan and bake at 400F for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Serve big bowls of chili with warm cornbread.
How you know it is right
- The chili is thick, deep and smoky with a meaty bulgur bite; the cornbread golden and set.
How to serve it
Avocado, lime, vegan sour cream, scallion; the cornbread for dunking.
If you want it simpler
- Skip the bulgur (add another half can of beans); a box of vegan cornbread mix; canned chili doctored with the chipotle.
Bloom the spices, bulgur for the bite, cornbread to dunk. First cold night, fed twice.
This dish came from the SEASON plan for September 21 - 27, 2026, alongside nine other dinners and one shopping list.
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Written and tested by Chef Michael Rossi, who has spent thirty years in professional kitchens including Napa Rose, THE RANCH, The Masters at Augusta National, and The Beach Club. Every SEASON recipe is one he has cooked on a real line before it reaches a home kitchen.