The first time I tried Medifast Chili, I really regretted ordering it and I swore I would never make it again. The beans were hard and the texture was kind of foamy and disgusting. I thought it was a travesty to even call it chili. Somehow I ended up with two boxes of the stuff and they have been quietly collecting dust. However, as I’ve recently mentioned, I’ve run into some difficult times financially and decided I was going to power through all the food I didn’t like before I ordered more stuff.
The chili sat in the back of the corner, just waiting. I even put a call out on Twitter for some tips, but unlike the great Scrambled Eggs tips, I got nothing. So I decided to do what any good chili cook does – experiment. I tried out a lot of things from adding ingredients to varying the amount of water and I think I’ve come up with something that makes the Medifast Chili very edible… to my Texas tastebuds, anyway!
Here are my Medifast Chili tips! (Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I’m limited to a camera phone for the time being.)
1. Add more than 4-oz. of water.
I know this is what the packet calls for. But my chili was coming out dry and foamy. I now add 5-6 oz. Experiment with it because only you know how thick you like your chili. With 6-oz. it comes out a little soupy.
2. Let the chili soak.
This is something I recommend for almost all the Medifast meals, but it’s super-important for the chili. I let it soak for as long as I can. Sometimes I mix the chili when I am preparing an earlier meal so it sits for 2-3 hours. This is not super-convenient, but I just cover it with a plate and let it wait.
3. Add chili powder.
After the initial 2 1/2 minutes of microwaving, I add chili powder. Quite a bit of it. Adjust this to your own tastebuds. Then heat it for an additional minute.
4. Add Salsa.
When the chili is fully cooked, I add a big spoonful of extra chunky salsa. You’ll have to steal this from your Lean and Green meal or a snack. Read the nutritional information on your salsa and decide how much you can steal from somewhere else. It’s really worth it. Mix this into the chili.
5. Add tobasco sauce.
You’ve probably noticed by now that I love spicy foods. I count the tabasco as a condiment and pound it on. Sometimes I go a little overboard, but it does make the chili really good.
6. Option – Cook it on the stove.
This is really the best-tasting option. I still end up adding the chili powder and other spicy ingredients.
These tips will help you turn your Medifast Chili into a nice juicy bowl of something that actually kind of resembles chili.
I LOVE this website!! May God bless you for doing this for all of us on the Medifast plan. I just order chili so I can't wait till it gets here so I can try this recipe. Thank you~ Thank you and keep all your awesome MF recipes and tips coming!!!
Hi,, regarding the soups… I too was having trouble getting the vegetables to re hydrate.. I add a bullion cube,, extra water,, cook on stove slowly,, and then blend in the blender… It satisfies the need for a smooth richer feeling soup, and the vegies are no longer an issue. Im glad to read that others use bullion, and that it is ok. For flavor, smoky salt helps as does lime juice.. I am a newbie, so those of you who understand condiments will have to figure out how that fits in.
Hi Jyl! Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you're enjoying the site. I don't really have a master plan, it's just something I work on and hopefully improve over time. I'm glad that it can be helpful to people. Let us know what you think about the chili!
I didn't get any chili in my 1st order and was thinking about ordering some in my second order. I have had people say in the chat room they didn't like the chili. I'm going to order it and use the recipe Jyl has sent to you. Thanks Jyl
My husband adds a veggie burger like from MorningStar or another version. They have many flavors like Chipotle Black Bean which makes the chili really good as well.
I actually don't care for most of the soups the way they are packaged but I've found a way to make them better. I take a wire seive strainer and separate the powder from the other dry ingredients. I discard the dry bits and mix the powder with water then microwave. After heating, I add seasonings and bullion. I also sautee in pam some vegetagles early in the week and keep in the refrigerator to add to my soup (mushrooms, green onions, celery, zucchini and yellow pepper.) I add 1/2 cup of the vegetables to my soup and count that as one of my meals and one green serving from lean and green meal. The soup is much better without the dry bits that never really hydrate and stay way too chewy for my taste.TSFL
It took some time but now the soups are some of my favorites. I add a little more water than it calls for and cover after they come out of the microwave for about 5 minutes. I also add “Louisiana” Cajun seasonings.Make sure the salt free kind.
TSFL, such a great idea. I have a question about Medifast and its vegetables…. if the vegetables are non-starchy, and they are just steamed as opposed to stir-fried, then why is Medifast causing us to eat only 1 1/2 cups? They have so few calories.
I’ve found almost every MediFast soup is made better if you use bouillon instead of water. For the chili, I recommend beef. The small bit of fat in the bouillon also reduces the foaming. Since switching to bouillon I haven’t had a single foam-over event. =-)
The pre-mix and let sit is also important. The stuff just doesn’t get rehydrated fully without it.
MediFast is an easy way to focus and stick to a simple program and lose a lot of weight. But fact is, eat 800 calories of ANYTHING spread out evenly over the course of the day (many small meals) and you’ll lose weight. So while I’ll add a thing or two, if it comes down to deconstructing and cooking ANYWAY… why spend $300 a month for MediFast?
Thanks, I’m glad I found this site early in my Medifast diet. My chili was so much better today using some of these tips.
MF chili is one of my FAVORITE meals!. Try this….I add 1/2 cup boiling water to the package contents (I boil it in an electric tea kettle, easy). Let it sit for at least a couple hours, even overnight. Nuke for a couple of minutes, until hot and thickened. Add a tablespoon or two of salsa and 1/4 lowfat shredded cheese. Delish. Remeber to count the salsa and subtract the cheese from your daily lean portions.
I make my chili or any of my soups, for that matter, the day before I plan to eat it,keep it refrigerated til then. I add 1 serving of vegetables from that day’s green count either microwave or cook them up using water or small amount of Pam. finally add them to the soup along with seasoning to your taste and Bob appetite!
Thank God for this website!! I was about to send back the chili when I found your site! Now the chili is awesome thanks to you!! Going to see if I can add a little fat free cheese next time. But, hats off to you for making this amazing!!
Thank goodness for this website. I just tried the chili for the first time and it is disgusting! I am going to try some of these ideas for next time but I brought it to work with me so I was stuck.
I just fixed my first chili – I only heated for 2 min in my microwave and it got really thick – I let it sit and added probably 1/4 c of water and a teaspoon of salsa and a pinch of minced onion. put in the microwave for another minute and then it still needed something – I actually won a chili cookoff once, so this isn’t what I think of as chili, but when I added a couple drops of ketchup it did help…..not to figure out what all extras I used 😀
Your recipes and this website has been my savior. I was about to quit because the food wasnt spicy enough and I missed getting in the kitchen. Thank you soooooo.. much.
Lin
I use my mason jars, every morning I mix 2 soups and take them to work with me and put the in the fridge, I can heat them in the glass jar, then put the lid back on and carry the dirty jar home to clean, very convient and easy, they hydriate well and then I also add spices and or bullion cubes depending on which soups, I love to add franks hot sauce to most all soups
Kelly –
Such an awesome idea to use mason jars. I think I will pick up some of the smaller, wide mouth jars to send premixed soups with my hubby to work. (MF works for him because he doesn’t have to think – just pick one & eat it every 2 1/2 – 3 hours. I add Sriracha to every MF soup. 🙂
I love to use my chili packets to make a much missed Taco Salad! Make the chili according to the packet directions. Completely cool. Add salad (one cup greens) add 1 tablespoon chopped red onion. Four cherry tomatos, 2 tablespoons fat free mexican style cheese. One quarter cup Pace Pecante Salsa. I have also added a dollop of fat free sour cream before also. Yum
Thanks for all those ideas. The only other thing I found was smoked sea salt from Central Market. With the salsa and the 6 oz of water discussed above, it makes a decent meal. I powdered a sea weed called Kombu (because it doesn’t taste like sea weed) and mixed it with the salt to get a super-mineralized dish.
I need the minerals in the middle of the day because I take hormones with a.m and p.m. pills and so avoid mineral supplements at breakfast and bedtime.
Thank you for posting. I just got my first week’s of Medifast shipments (purchased from eBay). I’ve just been adding more water and making it a soup. I eat these at work, so I remind myself how little time I have to nurture my meals but the soaking method I’m going to try. I want to try these following the directions to a T just to see if this will actually work for me.
Thank you so much for this recipe. Lucky for me someone gave me a bunch of Medifast food she couldn’t continue with for health reasons and I have inherited a lot of the chili. I tried the hot sauce and salsa with it today and I actually liked it. It sure beat holding my nose while I chewed and swallowed the “dog food” as I called it. Thank you for this website. The tuna salad was also great and something my family would like as well, that is a plus!
Hi!
My goodness! I love the way the chili came out. I made it using your secrets, PLUS all of the tips that were left by the others who commented.
Also, I did not have 2-3 hours to wait for that darn chili to soak, so I separated the powder from the dehydrated beans, etc. and boiled water and let the beans, etc. soak for 20 minutes (then microwaved that for 2 minutes)–perfect.
While the beans were soaking, I sauteed some chopped up (wedged shaped) zuchinni and cooked up the powder in the microwave. This chili tastes BOMB!
Thanks!
JW
Glad you liked it Janice. It’s always good to get tips from others to help “perfect” this chili recipe 😉
I have so many questions that I’m not finding answers for, but given time, I’m sure I’ll find them sooner or later!
But the chili? After I figured out I needed to add more water, it really is one of my favorites! I AM trying the long pre- soak as we speak, and am hoping that will make it even better! I’ve been using about 3/4 cup of water rather than the recommended 1/2 cup. I then add a very small splash (probably less than 1/2 tsp) of whatever wine my husband has open (although a hearty beer such as Newcastle, or an even smaller amount of port or dry sherry– I once used a dark non-alcoholic beer, and got the same results), remember to add this before starting the cooking process, so the alcohol burns off. I always have finely chopped scallions on hand, but I really like a TBL of very,very finely diced red onion added before the second cooking, or the standing after cooking ( do almost the same with the stew, and I think the cook times are a little different).if I have some, I’ll do the same fine dice with a little tomato, after cooking ( heartily recommend at least two high quality knives, and if you aren’t good with a whetstone or sharpening steel, buy a blade sharpener made specifically for your knives– it’s a waste of money to buy a $70-$100+ knife, and then buy a cheap sharpener! I prefer the zilling henckels four star and four star II, but any knife you can get a clean enough edge to dice that finely and fit your hand, will do– I don’t like to waste too much of my “real” 🙂 food in the Medifast meals! But the REAL secret is the hot sauce. Iguana is available in a lot of places online in varying degrees of heat. I like hot, but I prefer flavor, and we’ve found this to be our favorite (slightly reminiscent of wendy’s chili packets, without the extra sugar, &’with an added kick). Depending how I’ve done the rest of the day, I’ll add a very small amount of non-fat cheese, but depending on your cheese craving, Molly mcbutter allows for a larger serving, but kernel seasons makes so many flavors, the nacho, white cheddar, and the best, bacon cheddar, added in small amounts, really will turn out one heck of a good chili!
Yes, i’ll learn to shorten my posts. Sorry about that.
And thanks SO much for setting up this site. I’ve pretty much living on egg white omelets, which I love but i’m still convinced that’s a typo– I beat my egg whites so I get a lovely puffy cloud of eggs, but even if I could EAT 14 egg whites, I don’t have a pan big enough to cook them all in!!!
Hey thanks for the tips, it’s awesome that everyone has their own twist to this recipe. Oh and don’t worry we love long comments like this 🙂
I have not tired the chili yet. I did bring it for lunch today. Boy am I sure glad I found this page!! I’ve just mixed it and it’s sitting for an hour or so before I heat it.
I just started the medifast program today (11-20-12).. I’ve got at least a 130 pounds to loose.. I looked up lean and grean recipes and found this web site.. I’m glad to have found it , I can’t wait to try all the ideas I’ve found on here. Everyone keep up the good work..
Hi! Just trying to find help with making the MF chili edible and came across your post! I started MF 1/1/13. I, too, have 130 lbs I wish to lose. I am 29 lbs down and hope to be 30 lbs down by 2/28/13. 🙂 How are you doing? I would be very interested in hearing about your journey. Take care and hope to talk to you soon. Tricia
Thanks for your tips on the chili! The chili is actually one of my favorites (right after Maryland Crab Soup). For both soups, I add a dash of salt, use a little extra water, soak the soup during cooking, and then add a dash of Sirachi chili sauce.
Love them – YUM!
Travis…so funny, I wrote my comment and then started reading some of the others…apparently we have the same taste likes! LOL
I LOVE the chili!! From day one I added more water and cooked it for 6-8 minutes in the microwave…let it sit and added Sriracha! Man, the spice is awesome and you only have to add about 1/4 teaspoon to give it the kick I love…I also have it with a bag of garden vegetable crackers sometimes (opt. snack)…a real treat. Yes, I get a hard bean every once in awhile but worth it!
I am on my second round of Medifasting! I normally start my lunch(chili, soup, stew) at my morning snack. Soaking any of these helps tremendously! I recently started letting my cappaccino sit, no more boiling over in the micro! While sitting it will need to be stirred a couple of times but NO wasted drink…I want the benefit of all my money spent on these products.
So happy to have found this site. I’ve tried a few times to get going with this diet, but this Tim is a go. I also ordered the chili and was wondering if I did the right thing .now im hopeful. Im 54 and have over 100 to lose. I live in Texas. If anyone wants a diet buddie give me a shout at ediebnntt@yahoo.com.
How about adding an ounce or two of leftover roast beef, steak, cooked hamburger, cooked ground turkey or chicken?