Fall is here and I'm all about soups and chili. Any meal that uses the crock pot or only uses a couple dishes is also always a winner in my book. The evenings can get hectic and you don't want to be doing lots of dishes every night. This chili is easy to make, easy to adjust ingredients, and you can eat it for a couple days to make evening meals easier.
This specific recipe came from my mother-in-law. I will say that this was our first time using northern beans in it and it was delicious.
The must-haves:
- Bush's Chili Magic is the absolute best one we have found
- Chili beans
- Chili ready tomatoes
- Tomato juice
The other beans can be varied. You can also use whatever brand is on sale or whichever one you personally prefer. We also like to add cut spaghetti. This is not always easy to find so you can use another type of noodle or none at all if you're in the "no pasta in my chili" camp.
For the meat, you can use anything you'd like. We've used ground beef, ground turkey, and ground chicken before. Once again, you can use what you have or what's on sale if that's easiest.
Cooking the Meat
We always cut up about a quarter of an onion and sautee that on medium high for a couple minutes before adding a few cloves of crushed up garlic. Cook for about a minute until it is golden then you add your meat. Cook until all cooked.
While the meat is cooking, use your big pot to boil the pasta. Once the pasta is cooked, drain, then add all the components to the big pot.
Add seasonings to taste. We usually use some chili powder along with some garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Use whatever you like that makes it taste good to you. You can always add some Tobasco or red pepper flakes if you want a kick.
Warm all the ingredients together and serve with cheese, sour cream, and I know some people like peanut butter sandwiches with their chili, too. We make cornbread because my oldest loves it.
Let me know if you make it and if you made any changes.
Enjoy!
Yum! I have been thinking about making a pot myself!
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