Easy Chili to take the chill off

Tuesday December 13, 2011

Last night with the temperature dropping down into the 30’s Fahrenheit and the hubby feeling a little bit under the weather, I thought it was obviously a good night for some warm and hearty comfort food. 

I stepped into my kitchen and began to rummage around; I had hot chili peppers and bell peppers in the freezer from Poplar Ridge Farm where I participate in the work share program. I was out of yellow onions but had pearl onions from the farm, organic lean ground beef, a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and red kidney beans. I had all the ingredients that I required to cook up a pot of home made chili, which would surely ward off the chill in the air and hopefully bring some comfort to my husband. 

I have my basic chili recipe, however sometimes I use ground turkey, chicken or pork but I have to say that some days when we are craving a hearty chili only ground beef will do. 

Chili with ground beef and hot chili’s

Ingredients:

•         1 lb ground beef, ground turkey or ground chicken

•         1 small sweet yellow onion diced

•         2 garlic cloves minced

•         28 ounce can diced tomato with liquid

•         15 oz can light red kidney and 1~ 15 oz can black beans, rinse to remove excess sodium

•         1 Tablespoon chili powder - add more to spice it up 

•         2 small hot peppers, slice in half, remove seeds and dice or ½ tsp cayenne or red pepper (the heat increases as the chili cooks, if you like it hot and spicy add more chili’s or powder)

•         1 medium size bell pepper, slice, remove seeds and chop           

Cooking Instructions:

•         Over medium heat on the stove top heat add the ground beef to a large cooking pot  cook until the beef turns brown about 10 minutes. Drain grease from cooked ground beef

•         Add the onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, kidney or black beans, chili powder and peppers

•         Bring the chili to a boil and simmer on low for 60 to 90 minutes, the longer you simmer the chili the deeper the flavor

•         Everyone's taste buds are different so I usually add enough spice to provide a great flavor, each person can add additional hot sauce depending on how spicy and hot they like their chili

•         Salt and pepper to taste, start with ¼ tsp each  

Makes four servings or two if you are really hungry! Double the recipe and freeze a portion to have on-hand when the craving for chili hits again.

What is your favorite Chili recipe?

Just cook something. Cheers! Kary