Today was a low-consumption day. My wife was off of work, so I spent the day sleeping in, buying groceries, cooking a large batch of chili, writing, and watching shows on Netflix. The chili recipe is simple, pairs well with sides, and can be made in small or large batches. I received the recipe from my mom.
Homemade Chili
The ingredients for the recipe are,
- Beans of choice. Choose canned beans for convenience or rehydrate dried beans if you prefer those. I make the recipe 50% beans and 50% other ingredients.
- Meat of choice, or no meat. I used chicken in this batch, but I like beef and love venison in chili. I haven’t tried lamb chili, but it’s probably delicious.
- Vegetables of choice. I added canned green chili peppers, chopped jalapenos, and chopped bell peppers. It’d be even better if I roasted the bell peppers first, I think. The recipe calls for chopped onion, but I forgot to add that.
- Tomato sauce.
- Ground black pepper.
- Ground cayenne.
- Chili powder.
- Salt.
The amount of each ingredient depends on the size of your pot. I used a 5-quart slow-cooker, but you can easily use a larger or smaller slow-cooker or pot.
The Recipe
Time needed: 5 hours.
5-Quart Spicy Chili Recipe
- First, begin sautéing 1 pound of diced chicken. Cook completely.
- Drain and add an 80 ounce mix of black beans, dark kidney beans, and great northern beans to 5-quart slow-cooker.
I used canned beans. If I rehydrate the beans myself, I add some of the water and save the rest for a vegetable stock for another meal.
- Chop and add 1 jalapeno and 1 bell pepper.
- Open and add 1 can of green chili peppers.
Or chop and add fresh green chili peppers.
- Toss in the pound of cooked, diced chicken.
- Add 30 ounces of tomato sauce for a slightly soupy chili.
You can add more or less depending on preferred consistency.
- Grind and add 1 teaspoon of black pepper.
- Add 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
- Add 1 tablespoon of salt.
- Finally, add 3 tablespoons of chili powder.
- Mix all of this together in the slow-cooker.
- Bring to a boil on high then reduce heat to low. Simmer gently for 4 hours.
Add water if it becomes too thick. If you use rehydrated beans, you may have to cook longer because the acidity in the tomato sauce and the salt cause legumes to cook slower. Alternatively, you can rehydrate your beans, then cook them for about an hour and add cooked beans to the chili so tenderness isn’t a potential issue.
This recipe made enough food for four dinners for me and my wife. It’s a large batch.
The featured image is by Shelley Pauls on Unsplash.
[Edit: 22 May 2020. I made the same recipe, except I added ground sweet italian sausage to the chili instead of chicken. It turned out amazing. The sausage balances out the spiciness of the chili and makes a fuller flavor.]
