I have been a slacker in the kitchen as of late. After a summer of morning sickness, traveling, and starting up the school year, I'm back at it... or at least, my crock pot is. I'm still trying to balance teaching, pregnancy, and trying to clean after a month of being gone, so time for making delicious, healthy food is limited.
I digress.
Happy football season, everyone! It is still muggy down here in the south (today it wasn't bad - 75 - but the rain made it a bit sticky) but that can't stop me from enjoying some of the best things about football season: chili.
(Let's be honest... at every football gathering you can always find at least one person more excited about the food than the sport. Chili and football were made for each other.)
This is crock pot chili. You can make it the night before (start it late Saturday if you want to make it for a 1 p.m. Sunday game) or Monday before work for Monday night football. Or you could make it any other time you like.
This makes hot chili. If you want to tone it down, use Ro*Tel's Original tomatoes with chili peppers (for medium) or mild for, well, mild. Don't skip the chilies, though.
If you find, after cooking, it is too hot, add more tomatoes.
You will need:
1 sweet onion, diced
1 - 1.5 lb ground beef
2 large cans (14-16 oz) tomato puree
2 8 oz cans Ro*Tel diced tomatoes with chilies (hot)
2 4 oz cans fire-roasted diced green chili (mild) - I get mine at Trader Joe's
1 large can (or 2 regular cans) dark red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can great northern white beans
onion & garlic powders
salt
smoked paprika
chili powder (I use Penzey's Chili 3000 - it is fantastic)
something to eat your chili over - I like elbow pasta
I use my standard sized crock for this. If you have a little crock, cut it in half.
Brown the beef and caramelize the onions. Put into crock with the next 3 ingredients. Add 1 TBS salt, 4 TBS chili powder, and 1 tsp smoked paprika.
Cook on low for 6+ hours (or, if you are in a rush, high for 3)
1 hour before serving (ish... 30 min - 2 hours, really):
Add beans (drained), 1 TBS smoked paprika, onion and garlic powders to taste (if you don't know where to start, add 1.5 tsp of each and go from there), and salt if needed. If it isn't as hot as you would like, stir in some crushed red pepper.
Simmer on low.
If there is too much liquid, remove the lid while it simmers.
Enjoy!
I'm kind of super excited about this recipe but in future tense, because I probably won't make it until I have my own home [day dreaming, sadly]. My original thought of first-important-purchase-for-new-home was initially a vacuum, but those are so darned pricey any more that I figure I'll go with a crockpot. And a larger rice steamer [Greg got one that's nice, but it's kind of small]. And, you know, actual flatware and so on. But I'm theoretically inheriting a fair amount from kind souls [namely parents and Jamie]. And now this is just babbling.
ReplyDeleteBut now I almost want momma to make her chili [5 bean chili with either ground beef or her enchilada chicken--tasty, tasty good!].
Ermmm...I'm done rambling at you. LVOE!