New Year's Chili

Talk about simple yet delicious. I decided to make a giant (6 qt) crock pot of chili with the slate of football games on today and it being New Years. Sure it is 70 degrees outside, but that still wouldn't stop me from making this today.

First of all, if you don't own a Vidalia Onion Chopper I suggest you go buy one today. This thing is a must have tool in the kitchen for dicing fruits and vegetables. Not to mention you can take out a little aggression slamming the lid down as you dice everything up.

Start off by dicing 2 green peppers and 2 sweet onions and set aside. Next you need to brown off your meat in some olive oil and add garlic & pepper to taste. I like a lot of garlic, so a lot of garlic it is. Drain and set aside. Then it is time to get the spices together. This is a mix of ground cumin, garlic powder, salt, oregano, ground coriander, allspice, paprika, and ground chili peppers.

Now it is onto the crock pot. I add in 2 cans of light kidney beans and 2 cans of dark kidney beans. Add everything from 3 cans and drain one of the cans. Next add n the ground beef that you set aside. I then add in the 2 large cans of tomatoes and the small can on tomatoes with green chilies. Now it is time for the onions, green peppers, and a bottle of beer. Stir everything together and then add your spice mixture to taste. Stir until everything is well distributed, set the crock pot to low for 10 hours, cover and walk away. Come back and stir every now and then.

Through the cooking process you will know if you need to add tomato paste or not to help thicken it up. I ended up using about 2/3 of the can with this batch.

The buffet of add-ons for all to enjoy include, cheddar cheese, colby jack cheese, hot sauce, jalapenos, onions, saltines, tortilla chips, scallions, and sour cream.