Chili

It's cold!

Reeeeeally cold! 

Time to break out the "winter food" recipes

I love chili!

It's so warm and comforting to eat.

I'm only "allowed" to make it in the winter though.

Hubs has issues with me making soup or chili when it's warm out.

I find that slightly wierd...

So sometimes, I sneak in soup.

I'm a rebel....lol

But, now that it's chili season I thought I'd share my favorite chili recipe with you!

Ingredients:

1 (29oz) can of tomato sauce

1 (28oz) can of whole tomatoes

2 (28oz) cans of crushed tomatoes

1 large Onion (or 2 small ones), diced

1 (1.25oz) pkt of chili seasoning

10 cloves of garlic, diced

2 lbs of ground beef/turkey (cooked)

2 cans kidney beans, undrained

**shredded cheese (optional toppings)

**sour cream (optional toppings)

**crackers (optional toppings)

Dont have packaged chili seasoning?
Make your own-
Ingredients for homemade chili seasoning:
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Brown the ground beef and drain grease

Add all ingredients (except toppings) into a large pot

Cook 3-4 hours on low/med (or longer) with lid off
Stir occasionally

**Serve with toppings above or anything else that sounds good :)

FYI: This is a 5 qt pot and it's pretty full. It definitely makes a lot of chili!

***Reviews:
I really like this chili.  The hubs would prefer if it was much much more spicy, but he likes it otherwise.He just adds his cholula hot sauce to his own bowl.  The kids will not eat it.... and I don't expect them to.  But it's a pretty good recipe I think.  I really love all the garlic in it! It's pretty chunky too... not a "soupy" kind of chili.

**Tips:

Chili is a pretty basic dish.  You can add almost anything you like.  That's the great part about it.  You can add steak chunks, jalapenos, hot sauce, green pepper.  Or you can take out the garlic or onion .... it's flexible. Add more beans or take them out entirely. If you want it more soupy, you can replace the whole tomatoes for tomato sauce or even (blah) tomato juice (my mom does this). She also adds little noodles so it's more like goulash.  I have even seen people add cocoa powder.

Also, I had a friend that used this basic recipe and added a can of hormel chili as well. I thought that was pretty good too.  What I love about chili is that no two chili's are alike.... so get creative and make it your own.

Cooking it as long as you can is best... but  make sure it's on low because you do not want to burn the bottom... yuk!  It's almost always better the next day too.  

Another bonus?  You can put it all in the crockpot and cook it all day.  How cool is that!

You can easily freeze any leftovers too! 

Gotta love chili!

*Serving it:

I cannot eat chili without sour cream and cheese in it... seriously! 

It's awesome with crackers too.

One of the best add ins?  French fries!  Serious... try it somtime.

You can also just eat it plain OR with a little Italian bread.

Anything is better with Italian bread!

White Chicken Chili Crockpot OR Stovetop

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs chicken breast
- 2 48 oz jars of Great northern beans (the white ones)

- 1/2 can chicken broth (~7oz)

- 1 jar of salsa

- 1 8oz bag of colby jack

* Sour cream is optional... but yummy!

Directions:

• Boil, grill or otherwise cook the chicken breast.
• Cut or shred them up into bite sized pieces.
• Add chicken, beans (liquid & all), salsa and broth to crockpot or stock pot on the stove.
• Cook until hot.
• I did it in the crockpot on high for about 4 hours.
• On the stove it doesn't take too long, but it's good to let it simmer maybe 20 minutes and to blend the flavors together.
• Add cheese 15 minutes before serving to let it melt in.

I serve it with sour cream on top and some fresh italian bread. It's also great to eat with scoops tortilla chips!

***Review:
I got this recipe about 7 years ago at a boy scout potluck. It was awesome and I had to have it, so I hunted this lady down and had her write the recipe on a napkin for me. I still use the napkin as my recipe card! Everyone I have made it for loves it... including my dad who was here tonight for dinner.

The kids asked for seconds which kind of shocked me... so I will call this one a HIT!

**Tips:

It does make quite a bit... I think we will be eating this one for a few days. Great thing about it is we can freeze it and eat it for lunch or dinner another day. Or as always you can cut the recipe in half... but I love making extra to freeze.

As always, please let me know if you try this. I would love to hear what you would do different & what you liked and didn't like.