My Chili Secrets

Just a little peek into the story on Chili Secrets at Aliveutah.com this month. I love chili in all its forms but I definitely have a favorite recipe and this is it. Of course everyone has a favorite chili recipe or a family secret and I definitely have my little "secrets" except that I tell my food secrets to everyone. As I did in this month's Taste article at http://aliveutah.com/content/chili-secrets. One of my secrets is to add well seasoned meat, always! I just use my standard ground meat recipe.

1 ½ pounds of ground beef

½ cup of dehydrated onions or 1 cup of diced onions
1 Tb (at least) of Montreal Steak Seasoning
2 cloves of garlic
Salt to taste
1 ½ tsp of worcherstire sauce

Brown meat, onion and Montreal Steak seasoning. Add garlic, salt and worchestire sauce. Stir and taste test, Add salt to taste. Add more Montreal steak seasoning if needed.



Mama’s Chili
1 ½ pounds of ground beef, browned and well-seasoned
3 Cans of red kidney beans, 2 drained and rinsed, one undrained.
2 cans of diced tomatoes, undrained
16 oz. of tomato sauce
1 green pepper chopped
1 onion chopped (for an easy quick fix use a cup of mirepoix frozen veggie mix).
2 ½ Tb chili powder
¾ tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low for 5 ½ hours. Taste test and add more spices as needed.

Veggie Loaded Chili

I have said it before, I love chili. I collect chili recipes and once the weather grows chronically cold I crave the stuff. This chili recipe is actually a little different than my standard chili. It comes from the recipe box of my SIL, Jessica. I like it because it is food storage friendly (I used dried veggies) and it has veggie power mixed in with ground beef and beans. I also love it because I can throw it in my crockpot.

JESS's CHILI

1 Cup chopped onion

1 Cup diced carrots ( I actually used rehydrated dried carrots)

1 Cup diced green peppers (I used rehydrated dried green peppers)

1 pound ground beef or turkey (seasoned to your liking)

3/4 Cup chicken broth

3/4 cup orange juice

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

4 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt (plus more for seasoning)

1 minced garlic clove

Seasoning

garlic powder

salt

pepper

dash of hot pepper sauce (optional)

Brown your ground turkey or hamburger. I browned my hamburger up with a little dried minced onion and Montreal steak seasoning.

Add all ingredients to crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic powder and if you like it spicy some good hot pepper sauce. I throw a few dashes in my bowl to give my chili some heat. Cause this mama likes it hot even if her kiddos prefer it mild.

Top with sour cream and shredded cheese