First, let me tell you that I don't cook. I can, but I don't like to. But since I'm forced to do it every once in a while, I have learned to make a few good dishes. My beef stew is good on a winter day, and the chef at work taught me how to make the best gravy ever. But it's my chili that is requested by friends when we have a pitch-in.
Last weekend I made the first pot of the season. I'm not proprietary about it, and I love it when someone shares a good recipe with me. So here's my bodacious chili recipe. Not gourmet or difficult, this recipe serves at least four.
1½ lbs. ground round
1 16 oz. can finely diced tomatoes (no spices)
1 16 oz. can light red kidney beans
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 medium sweet onion, diced (1 cup)
½ green pepper, diced
(3/8 cup)
3/8 cup Worcestershire Sauce (6 Tb.)
2 Tb. chili powder
1 clove garlic, crushed
water
butter
grated mild cheddar cheese
sour cream
chopped chilies
hot sauce
corn chips
12” saute pan
large soup pot with lid
On medium heat, sauté onion and green pepper in butter until onions are transparent and lightly browned. Turn heat to medium low and add crushed garlic; sauté mix for one minute, constantly stirring so that garlic is NOT browned (and thus turned bitter). Toss in large pot.
Put tomatoes, beans and tomato paste in the same pot and add at least one tomato can of water. Stir and set heat on low.
Brown ground beef and drain if excessive liquid forms. Toss meat in Worcestershire Sauce and then chili powder over heat. Add to pot, stir, and cover. Simmer for one hour or more on very low heat, stirring every so often. Add water as needed.
Festivize with grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, chilies, hot sauce, corn chips.
Serves four to five. Double recipe serves eight to ten and fits into large crockpot. (Warning: do not rely on a crockpot to simmer this dish properly. It must be simmered on a stove first. Trust me.) Since this is cooking and not baking, the amounts are "to taste." Play with it and make it your recipe.
Enjoy!
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8 comments:
how would you make this vegetarian? ditch the beef and just add more beans?
My mom, now 80, has made it clear that she no longer enjoys cooking like she used to -- and she is an amazing cook. You'll need cornbread with butter for this little side dish.
Sound yummy - and I like mine with the full festivization.
Your chili is a lot like mine, except for the Worcestershire sauce, and I wouldn't have thought to brown the beef with the chili powder. Must try. Sometimes I Tex-Mexicize mine with a small can of whole kernel corn - it imparts a surprising bit of crunch to the experience. There was a diner in NY that served chili sundaes - chili in a sundae glass topped with sour cream and a cherry tomato.
Copy, paste, print. I've got nearly everything in the pantry for this. Perfect autumnal food. Thanks!
Meli, I live with someone who fishes all the beans out; it never occurred to me that anyone would want more! I suppose it would work without any meat. I know some other dishes substitute with a soy "meat" for texture. Let me know what you end up doing.
A Lewis, I think the cornbread is a regional thing. It never shows up in the Midwest, but go for it.
Jeaux, just in case I didn't put it properly: I brown the beef first, add the W. sauce, and then toss the beef with the chili powder. It's not in the skillet long after that. I love the presentation idea of a chili sundae!
Torn, this recipe is my thanks for your "company potatoes." Bon appetite!
I am sure most of your readers would love this but my hiatus hernia begins to play up when I just read the word 'chili'. I once went to a staff dinner at an Indian restaurant and spent the evening eating papadums.
Without the green peppers, this would be fantastic. I have a thing against green peppers. It isn't nearly as big a thing as green peppers have against me.
And yes, bring on the corn bread!!
Birdie,
This sounds great - always looking for tried and true recipes.
And LOL at Meli's comment... turns out I'm sitting here catching up on blogs eating my Black Bean Chili. No meat a'toll.
But your STEW?? recipe? I want that too. Care to send that one? Or blog again? ;)
Monica
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