The Untold Truth Of Wendy's Chili

There are literally thousands of spots in the United States to grab a quick burger and fries. Wendy's is among them, with more than 6,500 outlets in the U.S. alone. But what does the place famous for its illustrated redheaded mascot, never-frozen burgers, and an endless string of humorous commercials featuring the late Dave Thomas, also offer that no other major competitor even so much as attempts: Chili. Go into virtually any Wendy's anywhere, and they'll have a hot cauldron of the homestyle favorite just waiting for a ladle to dip in to serve up a cup or bowl of beef, tomatoes, beans, and various other assorted vegetables and spices to a customer in need of a filled belly or warm-up.

Chili (with or without cheese, onions, crackers, and hot sauce) is a definitive Wendy's menu item, if not a distinctive and unique part of the fast food scene. That chili has also got a history as rich as the chili itself that's been simmering for a little bit longer than the few hours it takes to get the recipe just right. Here's all there is to know about Wendy's famous chili.

Wendy's grew into one of the biggest and most dominant hamburger chains on the planet, serving both classical and experimental takes on the beef/cheese/bun formula, along with plenty of other standard fast food items like fries, chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and kids' meals. Even after more than 50 years on the scene, not too many other mainstream, hamburger-oriented fast food outlets have ever bothered to take Wendy's lead and sell an original-recipe chili. It's such an anomaly that in his book "Dave's Way," Wendy's founder Dave Thomas admitted that "people have often asked me why we had chili on the menu from the start." His justification is viable both in 1969 and today: It was a way to cut down on food waste and turn a small profit off of meat that would ordinarily have gone to waste. "It's real easy: What do you do with the leftover hamburger?" Thomas wrote.

Fast food workers have to work, well, fast, and sometimes that means grilling up enough burgers to meet anticipated demand. But what happens to patties that get cooked (or overcooked) but not sold or eaten? Some restaurants would just throw them away and suffer financial loss. Wendy's doesn't do that — it saves unsellable meat for its famous chili. "It's then cut up, frozen, and bagged for later use in the chili," a Wendy's shift manager said on Reddit.

Wendy's says it's chili is chili, and upon a quick examination, it certainly seems like chili — it smells like onions and tomatoes and is made with beef and piquant spices and flavorings, after all. But some chili purists could argue that Wendy's chili is not, technically that. It's full of vegetable chunks (particularly tomatoes) as well as beans. In Texas-style chili, vegetables are cooked and broken down or pureed until they're part of the whole, reddish-brown mixture, while beans are generally not included at all. And all those ingredients float inside of a fairly thin broth, unlike the rich, thick, gravy-meets-marinara texture of Texas chili. Wendy's chili, in other words, is a beef-and-bean soup.

But whatever it is, Wendy's uses a not-so-secret recipe for its signature spoon-and-bowl hot-and-soft spicy mush. According to Secret Sauce, in 1994 Wendy's founder Dave Thomas contributed his recipe for "Old Fashioned Chili" to "Colorado Cooks For Education," a charity cookbook sold to raise funds for Colorado schools. From the brain of Thomas himself, the key ingredients in Wendy's chili are ground beef, tomato juice, tomato puree, red kidney beans, small red beans, onion, celery, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano, cayenne, and sugar.

A 2007 commercial for Wendy's chili featured the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun." Probably the best-known song of the Milwaukee indie rock trio, it appeared on the group's self-titled 1983 debut album and has popped up in many movies and TV shows. Composed by Femmes frontman Gordon Gano, "Blister in the Sun" is an early college rock classic, and it's also a song about teenage sexual frustration, which are only two of the reasons why it's surprising that it ever appeared in a Wendy's chili ad. OnMilwaukee columnist Andy Tarnoff discussed his bafflement, and Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie wrote in to explain the situation."Gordon Gano is the publisher of the song and Warners is the record company. When they agree to use it there's nothing the rest of the band can do about it," Richie wrote. "Therefore when you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity, and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect." The musician added that as a "gourmet," he avoids eating "garbage like Wendy's."

According to Billboard, Ritchie sued Gano, seeking proper recognition as co-writer of several Violent Femmes songs while also calling out his bandmate for sullying the group's good name by allowing its music to be used in ads.