Challenge #24: Slow Cooker Chilli con Carne

[miss_s_b]

Equipment Required:

• Slow Cooker/Crock Pot
• Hob.
• Frying pan/skillet and tools for flipping things in it and getting things out of it.
• Measuring spoons for Spices
• Sharp knife and chopping board

Ingredients:

• 500g (ish) of Meat. I usually use beef mince, but chunks of beef shin are also good, and venison is amazing (and lower fat, if you care about such things).
• 2 standard size (400g) tins of tinned tomatoes
• Some red kidney beans
• An onion
• Whatever other veg you've got lying around - mushrooms, peppers, carrots, celery, etc. Mushrooms will decrease runniness, carrots are neutral, peppers and celery will increase runniness. You might want to bear this in mind when deciding how many beans to add in, as beans dramatically decrease runniness. Use your judgement.
• Garlic granules or freshly minced garlic to taste.
• salt and fresh ground black pepper
• Whatever herbs and spices you feel are necessary. This chilli involved a Peruvian Spice Mix I got off the market, which I have NO idea what it had in it, chilli flakes, oregano and rosemary*, and a rather large slug of Encona Extra Hot Chilli Sauce.
• A couple of tablespoons of tomato puree for thickening.

Method:

• Wash and drain your beans. I have no idea how many, I just know what looks like the right amount, sorry. I never use the presoaked tinned ones, I use raw ones from the health food shop.
• Chop your onion and start it frying on a lowish heat so it softens.
• Add the dry spices (but not the herbs or the chilli sauce if you are using those) to the frying pan and stir them about for a couple of minutes so they wake up.
• Add the meat to the frying pan and brown, turning reasonably frequently.
• While the meat is browning, chop your other veg, open your tins, get your colander of washed beans, and throw everything except the contents of the frying pan into the slow cooker.
• switch the slow cooker on to low
• Once the meat is browned, add that to the slow cooker too, and make sure the lid is well seated.
• Resist the urge to stir it for a minimum of two hours! And even then, try to resist more. The more often you stir things in a slow cooker, the more you let out the steam and pressure which helps things to cook.
• If you are using raw, unsoaked kidney beans, this needs to cook on low for an absolute minimum of 9 hours, but preferably 12 or more; if you're using pre-soaked beans, you can get away with 5 hours, but even then you probably want to go to 7 or 8.

Serve with fluffy white rice or chips**, or if you want the full Northern England experience, half'n'half (some rice AND some chips). This will freeze well, so is useful for batch cooking.

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*yeah, I know, not authentically south American, but I always put oregano and rosemary in ANYTHING tomato-based because they bring out the tomatoeyness so well
**note to American English speakers which some of you probably already know, but just in case - chips are like fries but much thicker, not the thin slices of fried potato in packets, that we call crisps over here.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

Chili is good with American "chips" as well, if they're tortilla chips. :)

[miss_s_b]

This is true!