Chili Recipe

The chili I made the other day R O C K E D !!!!!!!! I've never made chili before and Kenny said I hit a homerun the first time! Yay! The recipe I followed comes from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook....

Serves: 6 to 8
Advance Prep Time: 30 minutes
Slow Cooker Time: 6-7 hours on low, 4-5 hours on high

2 tablespoons
vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped medium
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped medium
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
6 garlic cloves (I used garlic powder instead)
2 pounds ground beef (85% lean) (I used 93% and it worked just fine)
1 can tomato puree (28 ounces)
1 can diced tomatoes (28 ounces)
2 cans red kidney beans (15.5 ounces)
Pepper

1. Heat oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add onions, bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir in garlic and cook for about 15 seconds.

2. Add the beef and increase the heat to medium high. Cook while breaking up the beef until no longer pink for about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the tomato puree and diced tomatoes with their juice, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a simmer, then pour into the slow cooker.

4. Cover and cook, on either low or high, until the meat is tender, 6 to 7 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. Stir in the beans during the last hour of cooking. Before serving, season with salt and pepper to taste.

My tips.....we always use the 93/7 lean meat, and it worked just fine. I HATE garlic, which is why I refused to put chopped garlic in it and used a TEENY bit of garlic powder. I used the crock pot on high and it was ready in about 3 hours, obviously that will depend on your crock pot! One more thing, we didn't use cayenne pepper because I couldn't find it in the store, so we used regular pepper instead. I know cayenne is hotter than regular, and neither of us like hot stuff, but if you do, use the cayenne! It was seriously the BEST chili ever!!! Oh yeah, I took american cheese slices and layed on the top of the bowl of chili was it was still piping hot before we ate it and YUM YUM YUM!!!! Next time I will double the recipe so it lasts longer:)