Wendy's Copycat Chili Recipe-Make It At Home! - BubbaPie (2024)

Now you can make the Famous Wendy’s Chili in your own home! This Wendy’s Copycat Chili Recipe has ground beef, bell peppers, onions, celery, chili, tomatoes and beans for a meal that will warm you up on even the coldest day! I’ve also included instructions to make Wendy’s Chili in your Instant Pot and Slow Cooker!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• EASY – All made in one pot, this is a simple recipe with hardly any cleaning up!
• GREAT TO FEED A CROWD – Got friends or family coming over? Entertaining to watch the big game on TV? This is a great recipe that can fill a lot of bellies.
• DELICIOUS – There is a reason that Wendy’s is famous for their Chili? It’s super yummy! Now you can make a huge batch of it in your own kitchen and eat it whenever you want!

Wendy’s Copycat Chili Recipe

Since this website focuses on comfort foods. We sometimes love to take a look at famous comfort food recipes and give our copycat spin on them. From Cracker Barrel’s Fried Apples, to Starbucks Lemon Loaf, it’s so much fun to recreate some dishes that are near and dear to our hearts in the comfort of our own kitchens!

So, we thought we’d share our Wendy’s Copycat Chili.

How To Make Wendy’s Chili

Ok, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. A lot of you have made comments as to how EXACTLY Wendy’s does make their famous chili. A lot of you used to work there and can attest to their “secret ingredient”: that they use old, leftover hard hamburger patties that have been sitting in their freezer and that they cannot feed to customers. Enough of you have mentioned this that I’m assuming it must be true. We are NOT going to be using the same process. But we feel like this chili really does have the flavor of the real thing.

It’s SO easy to make, just brown the ground beef and throw all the other ingredients in. Then simmer and let the Chili start working it’s magic! Here is what you’ll need to get started:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 packet chili seasoning mix (I used McCormick)
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
• 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
• 1 14-ounce can chili beans
• 1 14-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Salt and Black Pepper – To Taste

Can You Make Wendy’s Chili In A Slow Cooker?

Yep! Also amazingly easy! To make Wendy’s Copycat Chili in a Slow Cooker, you just need to brown the ground beef first. Drain it and then add it to your Crockpot along with all the other ingredients. You can cook it on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Instant Pot Wendy’s Chili

You can also make this recipe in your Pressure Cooker! It’s just a little more complicated but still a breeze. To do this, you’ll went to turn on the saute function of your Instant Pot and brown the ground beef. Next, add the peppers, onions and celery and cook until translucent. Stir often. Once this is completed, you can stir in the rest of the ingredients except for diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add these to the very top of all the other ingredients and don’t stir them in. You may get a burn warning. Just let them hang out on top during the cooking process.

Storage and Leftovers

Keep leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator. They should be good for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave.

You can freeze Wendy’s Copycat Chili. Just allow it to fully cool and put it in a freezer safe container and label it. It will be good in your freezer for up to 4 months. Thaw it out in the fridge overnight.

Notes, Tips and Suggestions

• SIMMER– After browning the ground beef, make sure you are cooking on simmer for the rest of the duration. Cooking at too high a heat will get rid of too much of the water and the consistency will be off.
• CHILI SEASONING– As with anything that has spice added to it. You can add or subtract to your taste. But using one packet of McCormick should do you right and it won’t be too spicy. You can also add spice post-cooking in your desired method.
• SERVE WITH BREAD– We suggest serving these with our Mayonnaise Rolls, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits, Drop Biscuits, 7-up Biscuits or Copycat Cracker Barrel Biscuits.
• TOPPINGS – Serve in a bowl topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, green onions, hot sauce or sriracha.
• MAKE IT LIGHTER – If you’d like, you can substitute ground beef with ground turkey or ground chicken.

Items To Help With This Recipe

• DUTCH OVEN– This 6 quart Dutch oven will be perfect to cook this, and any other soup in!
• SLOW COOKER– If you are looking to use a Slow Cooker, this one from Crockpot will work great!
• GREASE STRAINER– Seriously, everyone should have one of these. And they are only $10!

We hope you enjoy our Wendy’s Copycat Chili Recipe. We’d love it if you came back and left a comment on how it worked out for you! We reply to every comment and love hearing from you.

ALSO, MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT OUR HOT DOG CHILI RECIPE!

Happy Eating!