Tex-Mex Chili

The picture doesn’t do it justice. Like any chili, you have to TASTE it… So read on, then get your ass in the kitchen!

Like I said in my previous post… I’ve been busy… WE’VE been busy, all of us, so I wanted to make something that would feed us for days.

Chili is always my favorite thing to make, because it’s soooo hard to screw up and there’s endless ways to make it different, literally, every time. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same chili twice. Now, usually, I use turkey everything, except bacon and chorizo… This time, I used beef. I don’t know what possessed me to buy a pound of ground beef, but I did. I don’t even like the way it smells when I cook it, but added to chorizo, it all worked out just fine.

This is a FAT KID version of chili. I have healthier and alternative recipes too…

Chipotle Carnitas Chili
Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili

I take that back, apparently I only have two! Oops.

Let’s get cooking, shall we?

Oh, and it goes without saying, this is freezable, thawable, enjoyable. Moving on…

INGREDIENTS:

Kidney & Black Beans – You can use canned, I did for this one to save time. I usually cook my beans ahead of time and freeze them in can sized portions to use in recipes or refry for my son. For this, you’ll need 2 cans of beans, drained.
1 Can of Sweet Corn, drained
1-2 Yellow Onions, diced
3 Green Bell Peppers, diced
1lb Tomatillos, chopped
1lb Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 Head of Garlic, diced
1lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Pork Chorizo
1/2lb Bacon
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
New Mexico chile powder
Black pepper
Knorr Chipotle cubes (this adds the Chipotle favor, without the heat. If I wanted the heat, I’d use the chipotle in adobo that comes in the little pull tab cans.)
Thyme
Salt
One, lonely beer. Preferably Corona or another Mexican style beer, XX or Modelo will work.

DIRECTIONS:

Grab your crock pot, turn it on high and add the beans and corn.

In a large, non stick pot, start browning the beef and chorizo, together. Drain off most of the excess fat and ditch it, we’re using bacon fat for the veggies. Add that meat to the crock pot and stir. In the same pot, cook the bacon. While it’s cooking, mince the garlic. When the bacon is almost finished, add the garlic and cook until it’s a  little brown. Drain the bacon fat into another little dish, crumble the bacon and add it, and the garlic to the crock pot and stir.

Then, with your diced veggies, start with the bell peppers first, then the onions, cooking them until they’re soft, in enough bacon grease to keep them from sticking to the pan… You want the heat around medium-medium-high, enough to blacken the veggies while you’re cooking them, just a little. It’s okay if you have a little mess in the bottom of your pan, you’re cooking it off, later.

Once the onions and peppers are done, add them to the crock pot. Then add the chopped tomatoes to the pot… Cook them, over medium heat until they start to fall apart a little, which should take like 5 minutes. You can cover them to help them along as well.

During this 5 minute break… Bust out that cerveza, crack the top and drink about 1/3. Make sure it’s ice cold though, for maximum refreshment in that hot ass kitchen, girl.

Now, add those tomatoes to the crock pot… Have a mess in your original cooking pot? Throw it back on the burner and add the beer. Whisk like crazy until the bottom of the pot is clean, simmer just a minute or two and add that mess to the crock pot.

Season to taste, as it’s getting’ sexy in the crock pot, using a big healthy squeeze of Sweet Baby Rays. This gives it a little smoky sweetness amid all the delicious hearty chili flavor.

Cook it in there, really, as long as you want… You’ll want to use the biggest crock pot, ever, or adjust your ingredients to fit in yours. I think mines about 5quarts and concoction came right to the top, I left the crock pot on high, half uncovered (sue me) for about an hour, stirring frequently, to try to cook off some excess liquid. It worked well!

You can serve it with chips, bread, in a bread bowl, with a fox or in a box. It’s really, really, really good. It’s one of the first batches of chili that I actually didn’t GET to freeze any of… It all got eaten!

Enjoy!