Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Grandpa's chili

My dad's dad died when I was pretty little. There are two things I mostly remeber about him. Crawling up into his lap with his work shirt on that had his name tag on it, and his chili. This isn't his recipie, but it is inspired by it. I bet he didn't use actually peppers in it... But the base idea is there, and it always makes me think of him. As with a lot of my recipes, I have no idea about quantities of spices... So you are just going to have to play with it. There are two ways to make this... The faster to make, slow it all in a crock pot and let it simmer all day, and the more prep time sauté everything. I usually do the faster unless it's the weekend and I feel like cooking! Ingredients are the same either way.



  • 1.5 lbs burger. I use 90% or 93% lean
  • 2 medium white onions
  • 5 stalks celery
  • 2 green peppers
  • 2 jalapeño peppers
  • 1 Fresno pepper
  • 1 Anaheim chili
  • 1 banana pepper
  • 6 to 8 tomatillos. 8 if they are all small. 
  • 1 can black beans, the smaller normal size can, um... 18 oz or so?
  • 1 can red kidney beans, same size
  • 1 can pinto beans, same size
  • 2 lrg cans tomatoe sauce 28oz or 32 oz size... I forget
  • 1 lrg can diced tomatoe, that same size
  • Lowrys seasoned salt
  • Black pepper
  • Chili powder... Maybe 1/2 a cup?



  • Seed and devein all the chilis and peppers. 
  • Chop the onion, celery and green bell peppers into about 1/2 inch, bite size pieces. 
  • Chop the tomatillos into 8 pieces or so
  • Mince the other chilis/peppers
  • Drain the beans and rinse them



Brown the hamburger and season with seasoned salt, pepper and about 1/2 the chili powder. Basically sprinkle across the meat. You'll just have to taste it when it's cooked.
 At this point you can out everything in a crock pot and just let it cook, or you can sauté the rest of the stuff and then leave it on the stove on a low simmer or move it to a crock pot. So if you are doing the faster prep, you are done now, otherwise continue.

Move the burger that you sautéed to whatever pot you are going to continue cooking this in (pot on the stove on medium or crock pot).  Put some olive oil in a pan and start sautéing the onion. When it starts to get a bit translucent, add the bell peppers and celery and cook till have sautéed a bit. They don't have to be all the way done, as they will simmer in the chili. Add this to the pot. Sauté the tomatillos for a bit... till they start to break down some; and add the rest of the chilis and peppers. Add those to pot. Add in the beans and tomatoes and sauce along with the rest of the chili powder. Stir it all up and let it cook till it starts bubbling. Taste. At this point you may have to add more salt and/or chili powder. Turn crockpot or burner to low.

A little while before its time to eat (either you get home from work or you are hanging out) taste and add more chili powder or salt, let finish for another 30 minutes for any seasoning adjustment to take hold... and there ya go!

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