ChefSums: Recipe Costing & GP

Chilli con carne with rice: how much it costs to make, per portion

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Beef chilli with kidney beans and peppers, served on basmati rice with soured cream. Ten portions costed from JJ Foodservice prices dated 10 October 2026. A pub, college canteen and staff-meal favourite.

Bowl of chilli con carne with kidney beans
Photo: Bowl of chili by Carstor, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped and resized. A licensed photo of the dish, not the exact costing below.
Ingredients per portion£1.85
Batch of 10£18.49
Menu price · ChefSums' sample restaurant menu£13.96 inc VAT (£11.63 ex) · 84% GP
Lowest price · 68% GP£6.93 inc VAT (£5.78 ex)

The menu price is the one ChefSums uses for this dish on its sample restaurant menu, a realistic UK menu price. The lowest price is the one that just reaches 68% GP, the UK food GP benchmark (UKHospitality × Christie & Co, 2022: 65.9–69% food GP across every segment). It covers the ingredients at a normal margin, not staff, rent or energy, and most cafés, pubs and takeaways charge more for simple dishes. Check what places near you charge. GP is worked out on the ex-VAT price.

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Ingredients and cost, 10 portions

IngredientPack pricePack sizeUsedCost
Beef mince, 10% fat£14.992000 g1500 g£11.24
Onions£7.4910000 g444 g£0.33
Red peppers (pointed)£9.493000 g375 g£1.19
Garlic£3.491000 g23 g£0.08
Vegetable oil£26.9920000 ml30 ml£0.04
Red kidney beans (tinned)£8.794800 g800 g£1.47
Chopped tomatoes (tinned)£19.9917700 g1200 g£1.36
Tomato paste£7.493000 g60 g£0.15
Chilli powder£7.991000 g15 g£0.12
Ground cumin£3.99400 g10 g£0.10
Paprika£2.99480 g10 g£0.06
Stock (vegetable bouillon powder)£10.991000 g15 g£0.16
Basmati rice£29.9920000 g750 g£1.12
Soured cream£6.992000 g300 g£1.05
Table salt£10.996000 g10 g£0.02
Batch total£18.49
Per portion (÷ 10)£1.85

Cost per line is pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size), the same sum the tool runs. Change one pack price and every line that uses it moves.

What it really costs: waste and staff time

Ingredients£1.85
Waste allowance, 5% (trim, ends, the odd one binned)£0.09
Staff time: 20 min hands-on for the batch of 10 at £12.71/hr + 25% on-cost£0.53
Food, waste and staff per portion£2.47

At the sample restaurant menu price (£11.63 ex VAT) that is 21% of the price, before rent, energy and everything else. Many UK sites aim to keep food plus staff (prime cost) at or under 60–65% of sales. The staff line counts hands-on prep only, not unattended cooking, and uses the April 2026 National Living Wage; put your own rate, minutes and waste in the calculator's real cost section or the prime cost calculator. Every dish side by side: the UK dish cost index.

Method

  1. Soften the diced onion, peppers and garlic in the oil; add the mince and brown it well.
  2. Stir in the spices and tomato paste for a minute, then add the tomatoes, about 300 ml of stock and the drained kidney beans.
  3. Simmer for 45 minutes until thick; season.
  4. Cook the rice (75 g dry a portion) and serve the chilli on top with 30 g of soured cream.

Costing notes

Mince is £11.24 of the £18.49 batch. The kidney beans are costed by tin weight (two 400 g tins), which is how they are bought; the drained weight is noticeably less, so weigh a drained tin if you portion by weight. Swapping a third of the mince for more beans is the usual way kitchens take cost out of a chilli: at these prices each 100 g of mince swapped for 100 g of beans saves about £0.57.

Rice at 75 g dry a portion is a little over £0.11, which is why chilli and curry are such good GP dishes for canteens.

Prep loss is costed in: each fresh vegetable line is the weight you buy, not the prepared weight that goes in the pan. Onions: 400 g peeled is 444 g as bought at 90% (onion yield); Red peppers: 300 g deseeded is 375 g as bought at 80% (pepper yield); Garlic: 20 g peeled is 23 g as bought at 87% (garlic yield).

Where the prices came from

JJ Foodservice collection prices as shown on its public search pages on 10 October 2026 (delivery runs about £1-2 a case higher; one line JJ listed on delivery only is marked). JJ does not label VAT on most lines: raw food is zero-rated in the UK, while soft drinks, alcohol, confectionery and some ingredients carry standard-rate VAT. Your supplier's price is the one that matters: open the recipe and type it in.

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