Chili is a comfort food; there aren¡¯t many people who don¡¯t like chili. Chili cook-offs are a time honored tradition for pot luck dinners and family reunions alike. Finding a great chili recipe is only limited to ones own skill, creativity, and pallet.
All chili recipes will contain ground meat (usually beef), beans (usually kidney and pinto), an array of aromatic vegetables (usually onions and bell peppers), savory spices (such as cumin), and just a kick of heat (usually from jalape?o or cayenne peppers) simmer over low to a perfect consistency and chili is born!
Crock Pot Chili
This is the perfect chili recipe for any day; it requires very little preparation and no ¡°slaving over an oven¡±. Start with a favorite ground meat (ground sirloin works well in a Crockpot, there is little fat, fat doesn¡¯t cook of in a crock pot) add to the meat one medium onion diced, one bell pepper diced, and one jalapeno diced (for less heat remove the seeds and veins).
The next step of this chili recipe is for the ¡°sauce portion¡± most people like tomato sauce, others prefer a beefy sauce. Use two average sized cans of either stewed tomatoes or beef broth for the sauce and season with a variety of chili spices including salt, pepper, cumin, minced garlic (fresh), liquid smoke, Worchester sauce, and steak seasoning are all great; cook this on low for four to five hours.
If using beef broth three cans of beans (average size and any variety) can be added once the beef mixture comes to a boil. If using tomatoes wait and add the bean in the last hour of cooking. Tomato can sometimes make beans tough if left cooking in them for too long. After cooking taste to check for seasoning, alter the chili recipe as desired to taste.
Chili Recipe Varieties
For sweeter chili use red, yellow, or orange bell peppers and scrape the lining out of the jalapeno. Also seeding the stewed tomatoes in the chili recipe before adding them to the sauce will make it sweeter as will fresh herbs such as basil, cilantro, or oregano.
For an ¡°alarming¡± chili recipe add a variety of spicy peppers in a variety of strengths. Anaheim and cherry peppers are very mild and cayenne, jalapeno, and chipotle are medium strength. Bahamian and habanero are the spiciest peppers.
Chili recipes can also benefit from condiments. Appropriate condiments for chili include shredded cheese, minced raw onion, black olives, sour cream, and corn bread. All of these ingredients will enhance the flavors in the chili or cool down the chili for people who don¡¯t like it as spicy.
