Sonya's Chili Recipe

Below is a Chili Recipe that I threw together a few years ago.  Several folks liked it.  So I wrote the recipe down and kept it.  Please forgive, for I don't use exact measurements on the all the spice ingredients, it's a pinch and a shake and smithering according to taste. 


Sonya's Chili Recipe
2 lbs. of ground turkey (or hamburger)
1 green bell pepper
1 small onion
2 cans of Hunts 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes (w/green chili's or w/o) - Here is where you can control your heat or lack of!  Hunts has varied flavors of tomatoes, also.
2 cans of Bush's chili beans (more flavor than kidney beans)
2 cans of Hunt's 15 oz. tomato sauce
2 cans of Hunt's 6 oz. tomato paste
Dashes/shakes/pinches and smitherings:
chili powder
ground Cumin
garlic powder
salt
pepper
cocoa powder
sugar
ketchup
mustard
tabasco sauce

Brown the onion and green pepper in a little olive oil.  Then brown the ground turkey or hamburger.  (Turkey is lighter! Tastes the same as burger.).  Add a little shake of salt and pepper while browning the meat.

Add the meat, onion, and pepper mixture to the crock pot.  Then add the diced tomatoes (drained or not), the chili beans, tomato sauce, and tomato paste.  Stir.

Then add all of your dashes, shakes, pinches, and smitherings.  

Cooks on high for approximately 2 hours, then switch to low for an hour.  I'd say as long as you give it 3 hours, it will blend in the flavors together for the most pleasing taste to the palet!  

NOTE:  This takes the BIG OVAL CROCK POT.  But you can cut the recipe about in 1/2 and use the regular size crock pot.

The Best Chili Ever

The Best Chili Ever

If you have a big a pot like this, you can double the recipe and serve about 12 to 16.  Otherwise it is good for about 6 to 8.  

Allow plenty of chopping time and it should cook at least 1.5 to 2 hours.  Mine simmered a bit longer.  The flavors are good on day 1, but the leftovers are awesome on day 2.

Ingredients: 

2 teaspoons oil

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. ground beef

3/4 lb beef sirloin (or stew meat), cubed

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 can dark beer

1 cup strong coffee

2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste

1 can beef broth

1/2 cup brown sugar

3.5 tablespoons chili sauce

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon salt

4 (15 oz) kidney beans

3 jalepenos

1 Anaheim pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

(You can change around the types of peppers.  George would have added more jalepenos for heat but went mild and went with Anaheim.  I DO think the green bell peppers ad an awesome flavor not to be missed though, so at least try to throw in a green bell pepper.)

Directions:

Heat oil and cook onions, garlic and meat until brown.

   Add tomatoes, tomato paste and beef broth.  I usually buy some chopped tomatoes (not shown here) that say "chili ready" or that have some chili peppers in it.  And that is what I used with this batch.  But plain is fine too. 

And add the beer and coffee (your special ingredients)! We chose a "porter" b/c it is a really dark and "heavy" beer.

The coffee is sortof a surprise ingredient in chili. Most people do not expect it.

 Add all your spices, sugar, and chili sauce.

I had to stop and grind some coriander b/c all we had was coriander seed.  We have a coffee grinder that we use to grind only spices with.  

We order a lot of our "odd" spices from Penzeys and they have some unique spice blends that we cannot make ourselves due to some of the unique spices.  You need to check out Penzeys if you have not already.  At least get on their mailing list.  Their magazine has lots of recipes and ideas. 

Stir in 2 cans of kidney beans and put in your chopped peppers.  Sorry kidney beans not shown.  I didn't take a pic. But you didn't need to see them anyway, did you?  lol

Instead, let's look at the peppers.   They are prettier anyway!  It's great if you have all your chopping done in advance.  Here's what went in my chili. You can mix and match though according to your preference and heat tolerance.

  Reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.  

 Add 2 remaining cans of kidney beans and simmer for another 30 minutes.  

(This step of adding some more kidney beans is important b/c the kidney beans added earlier cook down and adding these at the last few minutes of cooking really adds more texture back into the chili.) 

We left enough out to serve our family for two nights of chili and then froze the rest.   

It was really good chili which I described as having a complexity of flavor.  And of course the taste was even better on night two once the flavor settled in.  I can truly say it was the best chili I've ever had as far as flavor goes.  I think one could take this base recipe and twist it up with their favorite chili likings!