There are few things more filling than a healthy hearty bowl of chili, and very few of those things are as easy to prepare as chili, particularly when you are trying to feed six or more people. For the past several years I’ve been making this chili in one of three varieties — meaty, beany, and hearty — at various spice levels. It has a few ingredients to get the desired taste and texture, but you should find them all at your local grocery store.
Part One – Gather The Ingredients
This list is for preparing the hearty version of my chili, for the beany version simply add 2 more cans of beans, for the meaty version double the amount of beef. Where measurements are not included, I assume you have much more than you need for the recipe, otherwise, all other ingredients are pretty much exact. For making a spicier chili, I will include notes in part two to get more zest from the finished product.
- 1lb ground beef*
- 3 whole jalapenos
- chili powder
- cayenne powder**
- 1/3 cup diced onion
- 2x 12oz cans of tomato sauce
- 2x 6oz cans of tomato paste
- salt
- pepper
- beef bullion
- bay leaves
- 2x 12oz cans of pinto beans
- 1x can of kidney beans
- 1x can of black eyed peas
- steak sauce (Heinz 57 or A1)
- sugar
* can be substituted with turkey, sausage, or meat of your choice.
** can be replaced by whole cayennes
Part Two – Preparing the Base
The next part is important to start before cooking your meat, and basically starts with draining, but not rinsing, the beans and adding them to your favorite slow cooker. Next add your tomato sauce and tomato paste. If you haven’t already, go ahead and dice your onion and drop that in the pot too.
Now, depending on how spicy you want your chili, you will either need to clean out the seeds of your jalepenos and dice them (mild), or slice your jalepenos in rings (medium). Either way drop your finished jalepenos into the pot and move on to adding spices. I suggest 2tbsp of chili powder, and 1tbsp of cayenne, though you can certainly add more to get the spicy to your liking. Now, add 2 cups of boiling water, drop in 3 bay leaves, switch your slow cooker on high and move on to part three. Oh, don’t forget to cover your cooker.
Part Three – Preparing the Meat
Now, meat preparation is important, particularly if you want to have a synergy between the tastes in the tomato stock and your beef. So start by adding 1tsp of salt, pepper, cayenne, and chili to your meat before it starts cooking. Cook your meat on high, using the edge of a spatula to break it apart until you reach your desired level of chunkiness. Additionally, while cooking if you want to achieve higher levels of spice, you can add more cayenne, or slice up an extra jalepeno and saute it with your meat. Also, if you want more flavor from your meat, you can add garlic cloves (diced), garlic powder (2tsp), or more onion (diced) while your meat is cooking.
This part is important, you must cook your meat until it is “dry”. This will remove most of the water from your meat, as well as some of the fat content. You’ll know it is ready when water no longer pools at the bottom of your pan. When it is done, add the meat to your slow cooker without draining. You are almost to the point where you can let the slow cooker work its magic. Simply stir your chili until everything is evenly distributed, cover, and leave on high for 60 minutes.
Part Four – Spicing and Thickening
After about 60 minutes, your chili is ready for tasting. I usually don’t recommend serving at this stage, as there is still some flavor to be passed around between ingredients. However, it is a good time to figure out where it is headed before it is beyond being recovered. You can use spices we’ve already added to increase spice, or more peppers if you are daring, to increase the spice. If things are already too hot, you can use a combination of sugar and steak sauce, in 1tbsp increments, to get a taste that is less likely to melt your taste buds. If you added anything for spice at this stage, it is probably a good idea to add a 1/2 cup of water to prevent your chili from becoming a dehydrated brick.
Once everything is stirred in, cover your slow cooker, switch it to low, and cook for 60 minutes. When the timer goes off, your chili is ready to serve.
Enjoy!