Here is the Chili!!!

Keep in mind that I am giving the quantities that I use and that is a big pot of chili!! You may have to tweak it to get it to the amount that you need. If I could do it smaller than I would but that is not how I cook!!

ingredients:

5 lbs of ground beef
2 29oz cans of tomato sauce
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes (do not drain)
2 medium sized yellow onions (diced fine)
2 nice sized jalapenos (diced fine)
4 tbs minced garlic
4 15oz cans of dark kidney beans (drained)
3 packages of the McCormick chili seasoning
salt
pepper
garlic powder



directions:

You want to first get a large pot and brown up your ground beef, adding to the meat at the beginning of the browning garlic powder, 1 pkg of the chili seasoning, and the salt and pepper. All of those is not measured, I usually sprinkle a nice amount of each across the top of the meat, you will have to use your own judgment. While the meat is browning is when I prep everything else for the chili. I use my food processor to chop all of the onions and the jalapenos, works good for the garlic also, though I use garlic that is already minced! If you don't have a food processor then you will need to just cut it up on your own by hand. The reason I use the food processor is so that all things are finely chopped and not noticeable to most people who may not like onions or jalapenos, plus the flavor spreads more evenly throughout the cooking of the chili to make the flavors blend better. With the jalapenos, you can leave the seeds in if you want to have the temp that mine was for the Navajo tacos back in Michigan, take them out for mild chili, or before cutting the jalapenos you can roll them on the counter top and then cut it up with the seeds in (this makes it way hot!) Don't forget about the meat that is browning, make sure that you have it crumbled into small pieces to make a nice texture to the chili when all the ingredients are added together, you don't want big chuncks of meat. After the meat is browned, you will need to drain as much of the grease off that you can. I usually have mine draining in a colander so I can use only one pot for the whole cooking process. If you don't drain yours that way, then you will have to dirty another pan (sorry!) While I have the meat draining I put the diced up onions, jalapenos, and garlic in the pot to cook up for about 2 mins over medium heat, less amount of time depending on how big your veggies are cut up into. After the veggies are done then I add the tomato sauce and the diced tomatos. I run a little bit of water in the cans that had the tomato sauce in it to make sure that I use all of the sauce!! I then add the remaining 2 pkgs of the chili seasoning and stir everything all together. Drain the cans of the beans while the sauce comes up to a warm temp (about 5 mins after you stir it together.) I again use a colander for the beans like I did for the meat. While the water is running on the beans I toss then around to make sure they are completely clean of the juice they came in in the can. I add the beans to the sauce mixture then I stir together. I then add the meat back to the pot and stir. Depending on the thickness that you want the chili to be, you may need to add a small amount of water to the pot. After getting it the thickness that you like, turn the heat down to a meadium low to low (depending on how hot the medium low is, you don't want it to be boiling) place a lid on it and allow it to simmer for about 2 to 4 hours for all the flavors to blend, stir every 20 or so mins to avoid the chili sticking to the bottom of the pot.

serving:

I have shredded chedder cheese and diced onions setting on the counter so that who ever is eating the chili can add it if they would like or they can eat it just as it comes out of the pot, either way it should be good!!! Enjoy it.



If you have any questions on anything then let me know and I will answer to the best of my ability! Let me know how it goes.