We’ve got an ambitious schedule today!  Here’s the breakdown on the chili.

Chili is standard football fare, and it really is pretty healthy!  I mean, think about it…protein, veggies, fiber… it’s a nutritional power house.  It’s all the extras that we add – the cheese and sour cream, that make people watching their figures cringe. 

Our chili is pretty simple.  It’s my hubby’s recipe, which isn’t written down anywhere that I know of…and sometimes it varies because I fiddle with it.  My husband is very tolerant of my quirks.   We try to use venison if we have it available (and thawed out).  Venison is lower in fat than beef overall, and it tastes really good…just remember – flavor may vary based on the processor..since venison is so lean they often add a little fat into products like the hamburger…flavor is gonna depend on the fat used.  We tend to rinse ours well to cut down on that.  Today we used ground beef from the store (we forgot to thaw the venison). 

Now…start chopping!

Now, you can start browning the beef, ground venison, ground turkey…whatever you have on hand.  You could add the veggies at the same time, but the veggies will sweat and release water…that’s gonna slow down the process of browning the beef, and if you like to rinse the meat off like we do, it’s gonna take some of the good veggies flavors out too.  I suggest waiting until your beef is all the way browned, rinsed and back in the pot before you add the veggies in. 

See what I mean…this beef has more fat that some so we rinsed it really well.  Next we added our veggies.

As I mentioned, we use Chili tomatoes and Chili beans.  They add good flavor to the dish, unfortunately they also add sodium.  So for the kidney beans we use, I try to find the low sodium variety.  You could always use low sodium diced tomatoes and add more chili powder at the end.  You could also substitute any canned bean you like, if they aren’t seasoned, you can rinse them to reduce sodium.  I like kidney beans and black beans…

We also adjust amounts…sometimes we use more tomatoes, sometimes less…depends on the consistency.

 

Last, but not least, add in your spices.  We use…

 

Seriously, this is all about personal taste.  We add lots of Cayenne and Chili usually – we cut down today since we’re cooking for others.  And we added Cumin because I Love Cumin (this would be some of my fiddling with the recipe).  All that’s left is bringing the Chili to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for a while (at least 45 minutes so flavors meld).  We dumped the whole thing in the crock pot on low and are gonna let it hang out till we leave.  YUM!

 

Up next, Jalapeno thingys…You can find the recipe at Pioneerwoman.com.