10-27-2025 11:00am

Cash's Secret

Johnny Cash's Famous Chili Recipe Uses A Simple Premade Shortcut

While you may not want to trust every celebrity recipe you come across, it's a good bet you could trust Johnny Cash with chili. Raised on the Southern cooking of his home state, Arkansas, Cash retained that love of homestyle cooking his whole life.

Even after the legendary musician became a household name, he liked to cook himself. In fact, his son, John Carter Cash, even compiled the family recipes in "The Cash and Carter Family Cookbook." But Cash's chili recipe has long been the one he shared, even giving it to the United Service Organizations (USO) to be released in another cookbook in the early '90s. Cash's recipe is almost all fresh, but there is one thing he didn't mind taking a shortcut on. While he filled his pot with chopped veggies and steak, he would also add a packet of McCormick's premade chili seasoning.

After all, why mess with a good thing? Chili powder is only one part of the chili equation, with much of the flavor coming from the meat and multiple types of fresh chiles — and McCormick's chili seasoning covers a lot of bases without the need to fuss over the measurements. Like many spice mixes, the exact recipe is a secret (it only lists chili pepper and cumin by name), but copycat recipes usually mix garlic and onion powder, paprika, black pepper, oregano, and cayenne with the chili pepper and cumin. In the aforementioned cookbook, Cash's son notes that he preferred McCormick Mild and used it as a base flavor he could add to.

Johnny Cash spiced up his chili with packets of McCormick chili seasoning.

Interestingly, there are slightly different versions of Cash's chili recipe recorded in different places, but each one used premade chili powder. Then, the country star would add his own extra seasonings to taste, including more cumin and chili pepper. He also preferred New Mexican chili powders, if possible. Cash's recipes call for a little bit of extra herbal flavors, with some added sage appearing in multiple recipes.

In fact, the use of McCormick might have been an absolute necessity given how many ingredients Cash would add to his chili. In the family cookbook, his recipe uses four different types of canned beans: pinto, black, kidney, and chili beans. There are also three types of fresh peppers: jalapeños, habaneros, and bell peppers. And finally, he would shy away from the tomato, adding both tomato paste and cans of chopped tomatoes, along with sweet onions.

But don't think the Man in Black would settle for just simple ground beef in his chili either. Instead, he sometimes used ground venison. On top of all that, he would also mix in larger cubes of steak into the stew, either venison or sirloin beef, so the chili would be flavored with ground meat and still include more satisfying chunks too. Oh, and it should be topped with cheese and, of course, served with some fresh homemade Southern-style cornbread. The man certainly didn't do anything small, so why should you?