Recipe: Slow Cooker Chili

We love chili. Meaty, lots of beans and just enough heat to make it interesting and flavorful. Chili is a nearly complete meal, depending on how you make it. A pot of chili can last nearly the whole week without becoming tiring. It can be paired with a salad, a sandwich (especially good with peanut butter), cornbread, crackers, pasta, potatoes and lots of other things.

There must be thousands of chili recipes, each claiming to be the best. And that’s okay. If you have a favorite you already like, you can skip over this one. But if you haven’t made chili in a long time, or ever, this might be a good place to start. This uses a couple of shortcuts to make it even easier. With a slow cooker, you cannot only walk away and let it simmer, but you can leave it on warm to enjoy over and over again. Slow cookers not only use less electricity but are not prone to scorching, which can happen on the stovetop.

Without a slow cooker, this is still a good recipe and actually takes less time if you’re in a hurry.

Easy Slow Cooker Chili

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic
• 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 can whole tomatoes in juice, squished
• 1 8 oz. jar salsa (at the heat level you prefer)
• 1 package chili seasoning mix
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 3 15 oz. cans kidney beans, well rinsed (you can mix light and dark varieties, you also use black beans)
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup Ketchup
• 2 dashes Sriracha or hot sauce

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, brown ground beef and add onion. Sauté for about 10 minutes until onion is tender and meat is fully browned. Add chili seasoning and stir until fully mixed. Drain grease if needed.
2. In the slow cooker* add rinsed beans, tomato sauce, tomatoes,salsa, garlic powder and black pepper. Mix well and turn heat on high for about an hour.
3. Stir in beef mixture, chili powder, oregano, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Allow chili to start to bubble then turn heat to low for 4 hours. Then taste before adding hot sauce.
4. To add more heat, add a jalapeño pepper or two, finely chopped, with the beef mixture.

* To make in a stockpot,  after making the meat mixture, load the ingredients as above into a large stockpot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for at least one hour.

Add my Southern Style Cornbread on the side and you’ve got a tasty, filling meal in The Bachelor’s Kitchen.