My Favorite Chili
My Favorite Chili
For me chili is more than a cold weather comfort food, it’s a side dish, a snack, a highly versatile topping (for hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and crackers), and yes – even breakfast.
While I started out with a very simple recipe from a basic cookbook, I soon that there were as many different chili recipes as there were home chefs. Loving chili as much as I do, I felt obligated to try as many of them as I could. I soon found out that not only do I love chili, but that I enjoyed certain flavors and levels of heat more than others. It wasn’t very long before I realized that all my favorite chili recipes had many ingredients in common, and only a few were recipe specific. After a little trial and error (mostly trial and not too much error) My Favorite Chili recipe was born. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs 80% Lean Ground Beef
- 11/2 Cups chopped onion (Vidalia or Sweet)
- 1 large Green Pepper, seeded & Chopped
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Jalapeno Peppers
- 4 Cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 16 oz cans of Tomatoes (Chili style), undrained & chopped
- 2 19 oz cans of Red Kidney beans
- 8 oz Tomato Sauce
- 8 oz Hot Sauce (or to taste)
- 5 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Basil (dry)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 3 tsp Cocoa
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
Directions
- Heat an 8qt pot over med-high heat
- Cook Ground Beef, onion, peppers and garlic until beef is browned
- Drain half the fat from the pan and return to heat
- Add remaining ingredients (except cheese), stir to mix, raise heat and bring to a boil
- Reduce heat to low, cover pot and allow to simmer for ~20 minutes
- Uncover and check consistency (should be thick) – if desired, can be thickened by allowing to simmer with cover off
- Ladle into a bowl and top with shredded cheese & Enjoy
Since I like my chili to be spicy I sometimes add a little more Hot Sauce, so I need the chili to thicken a little at the end. If you don’t like too much heat, replace the Hot Sauce with tomato sauce. If you like your chili really thick, you can also replace the 8oz of tomato sauce with 4 oz of tomato paste.