40 Recipe Challenge, Part 15: One-pot Chili

Fall is more or less here, and I’m in a mood to do soups, largely because they’re easy to make and make for a pretty good leftover during the week’s lunches. Since I had some canned Roma tomatoes I needed to use up and I wanted to clean a few other things out of the freezer, I decided to put a recipe together for chili.

Chili, like vegetable soup, is one of those recipes that seems infinitely adjustable. My mom’s recipe is all in her head, and I decided to do more or less the same with mine. Feel free to modify to suit your particular tastes.

Note: I’m going to try this recipe again in a couple of months and include something that I should have included this time, which is beer. I cannot believe I forgot to put a beer in this chili. It was pretty good, but damn, a nice stout porter or brown ale would have been fantastic.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1.5-2 lb ground beef
2 onions, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 can light red kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans
1 can diced green chili peppers
1 C frozen corn
2 qt tomatoes (or 1 large can of whole tomatoes, shredded)
1 t Cumin
3 T chili powder
2 t crushed red pepper

In a large pot (6-8qt) brown the ground beef and drain any fat. Add the onions and garlic and stir for a few minutes.

Add the beans (don’t drain them), tomatoes, corn and spices all at once. Give it a good few stirs, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.

Cover and simmer for 3-4 hours, stirring periodically.

Serve with whichever toppings strike your fancy. I keep it simple and just throw some cheese on top. Makes about 7 bowls.

The end result is some chili that has a decent amount of flavor, but is certainly less spicy than I would have expected. I wasn’t really trying to light my mouth on fire with the stuff, but if you were turned off by the green chilis and crushed red pepper, don’t worry. It’s not nearly as spicy as it seems to be.

Like I mentioned above, I’m going to have to try this again, only with beer this time. Perhaps I’ll make an oatmeal stout or vanilla bourbon porter and use some of that.