Chili con Carne (12 oz bowl) Cost Calculator
Beef and bean chili served in a 12 oz bowl with cheddar and sour cream. Foodservice ingredient cost per bowl against a typical restaurant price. Prefilled with US average ingredient costs. Edit any quantity or price to match what you actually pay, and the math updates as you type.
How much does it cost to make Chili con Carne (12 oz bowl)?
About $2.52 of ingredients for a 12 oz bowl at foodservice prices, against a typical $9 menu price, a 28.0% food cost. Half of that, $1.28, is the beef. The beans and tomatoes that fill most of the bowl cost 48 cents.
Where the money goes
| Ground beef (80/20) | 50.8% · $1.28 | |
|---|---|---|
| Chili spice blend | 9.9% · $0.25 | |
| Cheddar (topping) | 9.9% · $0.25 | |
| Kidney beans | 9.5% · $0.24 | |
| Crushed tomatoes | 9.5% · $0.24 | |
| Onion + bell pepper | 6.3% · $0.16 | |
| Sour cream | 4.0% · $0.10 |
What 40 of them return at different prices
| Your price | Food cost % | Over ingredients, each | Over ingredients, 40 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $6.75 | 37.3% | $4.23 | $169.20 |
| $9.00 US average | 28.0% | $6.48 | $259.20 |
| $11.25 | 22.4% | $8.73 | $349.20 |
Ingredients only. Labor, packaging, fuel, and stall or platform fees come out of these figures.
Chili's cost is a ratio, not a recipe. The beef is $1.28 of a $2.52 bowl, half the cost in about a third of the volume, while beans and crushed tomatoes fill much of the rest for 48 cents. Every ounce of beef swapped for an ounce of beans takes 24 cents off the bowl; go the other way, Texas style with no beans at all, and it climbs. Every chili on every menu sits somewhere on that line, and where yours sits is your food cost.
The toppings are where the bowl creeps. Cheddar and sour cream add 35 cents, 14% of the cost, and unlike the chili they are portioned by hand at the pass, a pinch at a time. A heavy hand that doubles the cheese adds a quarter to every bowl, which over a 40-bowl day is ten dollars nobody priced.
What chili does better than almost any other menu item is waste. It is made in big pots, holds hot through a whole service, chills and reheats well, and is often better the next day, so the pot that did not sell today is tomorrow's service rather than the bin. That is why chili sits on so many menus at a modest price: a 28% food cost with almost no spoilage often beats a 22% item that throws a fifth of itself away.