The 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Better Chili, According to a Chili Cook-Off Winner

Half an hour before submitting her pot of chili for judging at the 2018 International Chili Society World Championship Chili Cook-Off in St. Louis, Tana Harter concluded that her dish was, at best, mid and needed fixing.

With just a splash of apple cider vinegar, Harter transformed her chili and clinched the win. “I won $25,000 using apple cider vinegar. You got to look at the facts, and that is the fact,” Harter later told the New York Times, As astonishing as it sounds, there’s a simple reason why apple cider vinegar works wonders in a dish like Harter’s award-winning chili: It adds acidity. 

Why You Should Add Apple Cider Vinegar To Chili

This doesn’t mean, however, that Harter would have won if she had used plain white vinegar instead. It had to be apple cider vinegar, as its acidity is smooth and nuanced, layered with subtle fruity and caramel notes, thanks to fermented apples. With plain white vinegar, you get a straightforward sour and tangy punch and miss out on the layers and complexity that apple cider vinegar brings. For a dish like chili, you want a smooth, bright acid that cuts through the richness of all the meats and beans, balancing the other flavors while awakening palates with its tanginess.

Harter’s trick can work with almost any chili dish. Make the batch of chili as you usually would, and stir in half a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar toward the end of the cooking process. Give it a taste and see how you feel about the chili. Then, continue mixing in apple cider vinegar, about half a teaspoon at a time, taste again, and continue this process until the flavors are just right for your taste buds. 

Be careful not to overdo it. It’s important to note that as the apple cider vinegar simmers in the pot, more flavors will continue to develop. Additionally, Harter only incorporated two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar into her large pot of chili, which included three pounds of tri-tip. 

It’s no secret that acidity is the key to upgrading many savory dishes. Apple cider vinegar can brighten and amplify flavors in a variety of dishes outside of chili, including noodle soup, beef stews, and even vegetable casseroles. Recently, I’ve elevated store-bought soup with acidity. Tomato soup just tastes so much better with a touch of balsamic vinegar, a trick I learned from Gordon Ramsay. I haven’t added balsamic vinegar to chili yet, but I’m confident it would work as an easy substitute for apple cider vinegar, given that both are made from fermented fruits. (Balsamic vinegar is made from fermented grapes.)

While not all of us can be chili cook-off champions like Harter, we can still enjoy homemade chili that tastes award-winning. With just a splash of apple cider vinegar, your next pot of chili might be the best you've ever made.