I made some chili.

I was in the store the other day and decided I wanted to make chili. I kind of just winged it, but it came out okay. Please feel free to critique. Warning: Beans, tomatoes and ground meat to follow. Proceed at your own risk if you’re sensitive to those things.

I started with some chuck roast and ground sausage. I cubed up the chuck and trimmed some larger pieces fat.





Next I chopped up the veggies. I went three types of bell peppers, some onions, and some garlic.



Browned the sausage and chuck. I browned the sausage in a separate skillet to easily drain the fat.





Next I mildly sweated the vegies.



While that was going, I processed some tomatoes.





Now I combine it all. Meat, veggies, beans, and tomatoes.



Next I added some chili powder and some homemade smoked hot peppers. This stuff packs a hell of a punch, so I use it sparingly. I’ve cooked chili that was too hot before, so I seasoned to taste as it went on. I also don't recall how much chili powder I used, but if I had to guess it was somewhere between 1-2 TBSP of sodium-free chili powder (the sausage had plenty of salt in it).



I let it simmer for an hour. It tasted okay, but needed a little help. So I bumped it up with some OB Ten Fidy and a couple pieces of leftover Halloween Hersey’s chocolate. Half of the beer went in the chili. The rest went into my belly.



Let it simmer for another hour to cook down some. By then it had darkened and thickened to my liking. Time to eat.



Obligatory "fork" shot.



All in all it was a moderate success. It was pretty delicious, but it could be much improved, so that’s why I posted it here to get feedback. The chuck really made a nice transition between 1.5 hours and 2 hours from tough to fall-apart tender. I feel like I could put some more veggies in it, but I like long, slow cooked veggies a lot.