Crock Pot Chili Con Carne
Nothing beats the aroma of Chili bubbling away in the kitchen on a winter's day.
For something so simple, with relatively few ingredients, Chili con Carne, or “chili with meat”, a.k.a. "chili," has developed a whole lot of mystique, much of which I deem unwarranted. Chili cook-offs as originally created in the late ‘60s were more drunk-fests than competitions. Even chili cook-offs today are based on recipes that are largely a matter of subjectivity that may or may not resemble the original dish called "chili" as known by West Texas cooks that were influenced by ingredients common among Mexican border towns, and serve as little more than fodder for the Food Network and/or the Travel Channel.
Chili basically started off as beef, onion and spices in a broth of water and maybe some stock. Tomato was never in 19th Century versions of this concoction and has only recently come about in modern recipes, probably starting out with cooks pouring a bit of tomato juice into the stew to give it some added richness and depth. Spices generally include cumin, garlic and of course, chili powder from the Cayenne chili pepper that has been dried and ground. But these days, chili powder is not just chili powder anymore. Today, there are thousands of blends in varying degrees of heat and made from a very broad range of peppers from the chili family, including Ancho, Chipotle and Habanero.
I've been making chili for years and eating chili forever. While one could write books on it and the whole southwest chili culture, I prefer to present a fairly easy, delicious chili recipe without all the hype. This is a recipe you can throw together in a crock pot sometime after coffee in the morning and allow it to cook all day. The longer it cooks, the better. In fact, this chili really tastes better after it has been refrigerated and re-heated the next day. It's better than anything you will get out of a can.
This recipe calls for ground beef, but if you're wanting a less fat, you can make it with ground turkey. If you do use ground beef, be sure it's ground chuck, not sirloin, and look for an 80:20 lean to fat ratio.
I prefer chili without beans, but if you want beans, the true chili aficionado will always cook them separately and then mix them at the last minute in your serving bowl. Traditionalists use kidney beans, but I prefer pinto beans. I think they are creamier in texture and have a milder flavor that compliments rather than overpowers the chili. Here is Kitchen Tapestry’s recipe for Crock Pot Pinto Beans.
Crock Pot Chili Con Carne
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground 80:20 beef chuck
- 2 medium yellow and/or sweet onions, finely diced (like, Vidalia or Texas 1015)
- 3 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2 14.5-oz cans petite diced tomatoes (like, Hunt's)
- 1 10-oz can Original Ro-Tel (click here if you don't know what this is)
- 2 14-oz cans tomato sauce (like, Hunt's)
- 1 tbsp Ancho chili powder
- 2 tbsp regular or "Mexican"chili powder
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground oregano
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 table package Splenda (you can substitute 1 tsp table sugar)
- 1 tbsp smoked salt (like, San Francisco Salt Company Cherry Wood)
- 10 grinds freshly cracked black pepper
- 4-5 tbsp vegetable oil for sautéing
Instructions
- Pour boiling water into the crock pot and set on ‘high’ and then put on its cover. This will bring the crock pot up to temperature and hasten the cooking time. If time isn't an issue, you can skip this step.
- Sauté the onions in a Dutch oven or large soup pot over medium high heat with the vegetable oil until the onions begin to caramelize, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic and sauté another minute.
- Add a bit more vegetable oil if needed and sauté the ground chuck until gray. As the beef starts to brown a bit, combine all the remaining ingredients.
- Bring to a simmer for ten minutes.
- Pour out the hot water and fill the crock pot with the simmering chili. Cover and cook on ‘high’ for 2 hours; reduce to the ‘low’ setting and allow to cook the chili for 6 more hours.
Notes
For a larger Crock Pot, add the following:
- 1/2 lb more ground beef
- 1 additional can tomato sauce
- 1 additional can petite diced tomatoes
- 1/2 additional tbsp chili powder
- 1/2 additional tbsp Ancho chili powder
