This Chili Wins First Place Every Time

📖 This chili written down with the measures: https://vernasbook.com so you're not guessing at the stove. My printed cookbook ships to your door! Somebody handed you a bowl of chili at a church supper and it tasted like hot tomato soup that had heard about beans. That was never your cooking. It was the order of the pot. This is the chili that has taken first place at our church supper more than once, in one pot, in about an hour. Stay to the end for what my mother stirred into hers to feed eight of us from one pound of beef. 🥄 WHAT GOES IN (serves 6 to 8; the beef is about $6 of the pot, priced this week, so take it as a map and not a promise) • 5 strips bacon, cut into small pieces • 1 large onion (about 1 cup), chopped, and 1 red bell pepper, chopped • 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon) • 1 pound ground beef, 80 or 85 percent lean • 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder (or more chili powder) • 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne • 1/4 cup tomato paste • 15 oz can dark red kidney beans and 15 oz can pinto beans (or about 1 1/2 cups of cooked soup beans in place of the pintos), rinsed and drained • 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, 7 oz can fire-roasted green chilies (mild or medium), 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 1/4 cups beef broth • To serve: sour cream, sharp cheddar, sliced jalapeno, cornbread 🍲 THE ORDER OF THE POT 1. Cook the bacon over medium heat in a heavy pot until crisp, about 8 minutes. Lift it out. Keep 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of grease. 2. Onion and pepper in the grease, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping up the brown bits. 3. Garlic in a cleared spot for about 30 seconds, then stir in. 4. Beef into the pot, left alone for a minute to brown, then broken up until about half browned. 5. Add the sugar and spices, stir well. 6. Tomato paste on the hot bottom for a minute until it darkens, then stir in. 7. Beans, tomatoes, chilies, Worcestershire, broth, and the bacon back in. 8. Simmer uncovered 30 minutes, stirring now and then. Better the next day. 9. For my mother's stretch: sprinkle a few spoonfuls of cornmeal over the top in the last 10 minutes and stir in. Cool within 2 hours, refrigerate 3 to 4 days (USDA leftovers guidance), freeze for a few months. Cook the beef all the way through, to 160 F. 🔥 A FEW HONEST WORDS: this is a rich pot with bacon, beef, and canned goods that carry salt, so I make it once in a while and taste before I add salt. Never put raw dried kidney beans in the pot, because they need a hard boil first to be safe. If you watch your salt, your sugar, or your potassium, ask your doctor how much is right for you. I am a cook, not a doctor. If this made your next church supper a little easier, I would take a subscribe as a personal kindness. It costs you nothing and it helps me keep making these for you. Have a blessed day. -Verna CHAPTERS 0:00 The bowl that tasted like hot tomato soup 0:53 My mother's chili 1:23 The bacon base 2:41 Onion, pepper, and garlic 3:36 The beef (and where I had it backwards) 4:28 The spices 5:38 The tomato paste step most people skip 6:48 Beans belong in chili 7:46 The cans, and the bacon goes back in 8:40 Simmer, and why it is better tomorrow 9:13 What my mother stirred in 9:35 Toppings and what it costs 10:01 A few honest words 10:28 Your turn #chilirecipe #firstplacechili #oldfashionedcooking #appalachiancooking