Smokey Winter Chili Food

SMOKEY SLOW COOKER CHILI

Steps:

• 1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add ground pork to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to slightly crumble. Drain well. Transfer pork to an electric slow cooker.
• 2. Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add pork shoulder; cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned, turning occasionally. Transfer pork to slow cooker.
• 3. Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in beer; cook 1 minute. Transfer onion mixture to slow cooker. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, chili powder, and next 9 ingredients (through ham hock) to slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH 5 hours or until meat is tender. Remove bay leaves and ham hock; discard. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and sugar. Ladle about 1 1/3 cups chili into each of 8 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon cilantro, 1 tablespoon green onions, and 1 tablespoon cheese. Serve each serving with 1 lime wedge.
• Note: You can also cook the chili in a slow cooker on LOW for 8 hours. For cooking chili on the stovetop, use a total of 12 ounces beer and simmer, covered, for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the pork shoulder is tender.

SMOKY CHILLI CON CARNE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a casserole or shallow saucepan over a medium heat, then fry the beef for about 10 mins until any fat has been released and the beef has started to brown. Add the onion and fry for another 8-10 mins until the onions have softened and started to brown slightly. Add the garlic and stir for another minute.
• Stir in the cumin seeds, ground coriander, oregano and a good grinding of black pepper, and continue to fry the mixture for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the vinegar, then the chipotle and tomato pastes, and stir everything together. Tip in the tomatoes and a can of water, then add the yeast extract and crumble in the stock cube. Stir well and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for 20 mins, stirring occasionally.
• When the chilli has thickened, tip in the beans and half the liquid from the can. Simmer for 20 mins more, taste for seasoning, then serve with rice, and top with the soured cream, jalapeños, coriander leaves and onion.

WINTER CHILI

Steps:

• Brown ground beef adding onion and garlic towards the end of browning over medium heat.
• Add everything else.
• Let it cook and stew for at least an hour -- preferably longer.
• I like to make it in the crockpot and let it cook all day long.
• And it is even better the next day!

SMOKEY WINTER CHILI

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 400F, or 375 if you have a convection oven (I recommend using convection because you're going to need to at least two racks to fit everything in).
• Start by doing a little roasting. If you're feeling ambitious, you can roast these ingredients on a charcoal grill and get some smoke on them, but it's not necessary. Wash the mushrooms and cut them into bite size pieces. For most crimini mushrooms, cutting them in half is fine. Drizzle them with a bit of olive oil and salt & pepper. Put them in the oven and roast for about 30 minutes.
• Cut the jalapeños as described and put them on a baking sheet or in a small cast iron dish and roast in the same oven with the mushrooms (they can share a baking sheet or pan, they'll take the same amount of time).
• Cook the bacon however you want to so that it's crisp, but not crunchy. I recommend lining a cookie sheet with parchment paper and baking them in the same oven with the jalapeños and mushrooms. They take about the same time and the house will smell amazing. While it's cooking you can finish prepping your other ingredients.
• While the oven is roasting away, dice up the onion into whatever size you like in your chili. Mince the garlic, and portion out your spices. I usually like to open all my cans right now as well to get prepped.
• In a very large pot, cook your ground beef so it's nicely browned. It's ok if it's got a touch of pink left in it, because you're going to simmer it long enough to finish the cook. If the beef wasn't very lean, you might want to drain off a little of the fat, but not too much. Remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.
• If your bacon is cooked, drain about 2 tbsp of the fat into the pot where you cooked the beef. Let it get nice at hot with the remaining beef fat, then add in your onions, chili powder, salt, cumin, oregano and paprika. Cooke it for 5 minutes or so to get the onions translucent and tender. If it's feeling too dry in the pot, add a splash of the beer to deglaze and keep the spices from burning. Add the garlic in and throw the beef back in, stirring and cooking for another few minutes together.
• Chop up the cooked bacon, and add that along with the roasted mushrooms and jalapeños.
• Add the canned tomatoes and beans along with all the juices in the cans. Add the tomato paste and beer as well, stirring to get it all mixed inches.
• Let it simmer for 30 minutes or so to get fully incorporated. Tase it along the way and add more spice if you want it. I'm usually cooking for people who can't handle the heat, so I add ground chipotle pepper to my bowl when I serve it.
• Top with some shredded cheese and plain greek yogurt. I also like a little cilantro on mine.
• Enjoy!