Beef chili

2010-5-20

Beef Chili

I don't have any photo essays of the cooking process. Too much on my plate today. This was actually the second soup and third dish of the day.

Chili's one of those things people seem to really appreciate. To ease my conscience, I wanted this to be more than just a meat chili. So, I threw in some vegetables. Those of you who know me well realize that I don't merely experiment willy nilly; I'm a calculated risk taker when it comes to cooking. Won't do anything really weird . . . yet.

My husband, younger daughter (who's two), and mother-in-law seemed to really enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Ingredients:

• 2+ pounds of lean ground beef
• 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 2 15 ounce cans of black beans
• 1 pound package of carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
  
• 1 package of celery, cut into thin pieces
  
• 1 medium sized onion, diced
  
• 3 garlic cloves, diced
  
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• chicken broth
• water
• sea salt
  

Directions:

• In a pan, caramelize the onion using some olive oil on low to medium heat.
• In a stock pot (mine holds a bit more than a gallon), toss in the carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, onion (once it's caramelized), several cups worth of water as well as chicken broth (extremely imprecise here; sorry).
• In the same aforementioned pan, pulling out most of the onion (it goes into the pot; see previous bullet), adding a tid bit of olive oil, cook the beef. Once done, I drained the liquid (I'll keep it for future use once the fat is separated from the broth), I poured the meat into the pot, to cook with everything else.
• Add in herbs and other ingredients - apple cider vinegar, thyme, oregano, black pepper, cayenne pepper, etc.

Serve with tortilla chips or corn chips. We also sprinkled shredded cheese on top. My husband and mother-in-law added some sour cream to theirs. Enjoy.