Food - Drink
Why You Should Consider Draining Canned Beans For Chili
By LAUREN ROTHMAN
It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t love digging into a bowl of chili at a family dinner or potluck. Besides additions like cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips, chili often includes beans (outside of Texas, that is), and if you tend to use canned beans to make chili, you should reconsider opening the can and dumping the contents into the pot.
There's a wide range of recipes available for bean-based chilis, which can include kidney beans, garbanzo, cannellini, or other varieties. However, canned beans are soaked in a canning liquid that can throw off your dish’s seasoning and texture, so it’s best to drain and rinse your beans before pouring them into your pot of chili.
Canning liquid can also water down and dilute the flavors of your chili. To be truly thrifty, hold onto the canning liquid to thicken soups and stews, since most bean canning liquid is loaded with starch — you can even reserve the liquid to add to your chili in small amounts, instead of dumping in the whole can.