Empanada Beef Chili -- The Halloween Dinner That Had to Happen

Halloween is this week and I almost did not let it happen. I almost said no costumes, no trick-or-treating, no pumpkin carving, because how can we carve pumpkins when Larry is in the ground three weeks. But the kids need normal. They need the routine. They need the candy and the costumes and the cold October night and the porch lit with jack-o-lanterns, because children do not grieve the way adults grieve. Children grieve in bursts, between trick-or-treating and homework, and then they come back to the surface and they need the surface to be there, solid and normal and decorated with pumpkins.

So we carved pumpkins. Tyler made a skull. Justin made something angry. Amber made a cat, elegant and precise. Josie made a sun, which is not a Halloween motif but which is Josie entire personality in a pumpkin, and I will fight anyone who says a sun pumpkin is wrong. We roasted the seeds. We lit the candles. We put the pumpkins on the porch. And then I went inside and sat at the kitchen table and cried, quickly, privately, while the kids were admiring their work in the yard, because the pumpkins were on the porch and Larry was not, and the absence was a physical thing, a weight, a shadow where a person used to stand.

For Halloween dinner I made my standard: chili and cornbread. Fast, hot, done. The kids trick-or-treated the south side again. Dave walked with them. I stayed home and handed out candy because I could not walk the neighborhood and pretend to be festive, not yet, not this October. Gayle handed out her full-size candy bars. The normalcy of Gayle candy bars was the most comforting thing in the world.

Justin came home with a full bag and a scraped knee and the specific exhaustion of a twelve-year-old who has been running for two hours. He dumped his candy on the kitchen table and said Grandpa would have liked this, and then he went upstairs, and I sat at the table surrounded by candy and the word Grandpa hung in the air, and the candy was sweet and the air was not.

Chili and cornbread is what I make when I need dinner to just work — no fuss, no decisions, nothing that asks too much of me. This Empanada Beef Chili is the version I’ve been making on rotation, because it has that same deep, savory warmth but with a little extra character from the spices that make it feel like something. The kids ate two bowls each before they put on their costumes, and for twenty minutes around that table, we were just a family having dinner, and that was everything.

Empanada Beef Chili

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup green olives, sliced
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Shredded cheddar, sour cream, and sliced green onions for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Brown the beef. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 7–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
2. Soften the vegetables. Add the diced onion and green bell pepper to the pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Add the spices. Sprinkle in the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir to coat the meat and vegetables evenly and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
4. Build the chili. Pour in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans. Stir in the sliced olives and raisins. These ingredients give the chili its empanada-inspired character — savory, slightly sweet, and deeply satisfying.
5. Simmer. Bring the chili to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld and the chili thickens to your liking.
6. Taste and serve. Adjust seasoning as needed. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, and green onions if desired. Serve with cornbread.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 7g | Sodium: 720mg