What you need:
-2 pounds ground beef (your choice of lean, extra lean or medium)
-6 tomatoes or 1 1/2 cans tomatoes or 1.5 jar of tomato sauce (more if you like your chili thinner – you gauge, you can always add more as you prefer)
-1 can of kidney beans (white or red – my boys like the white ones and call them ghost beans)
– 4 heaping tablespoons of chili powder
-2 heaping tablespoons of garlic powder or 3-5 cloves of pressed garlic
-1 1/2 tablespoons salt
-2 tablespoons vinegar
-1 teaspoon ground pepper (white pepper is less spicy, black pepper is fine)
-2 tablespoons cumin
-1 teaspoon paprika
Optional:
-1 large onion, diced ans sautéed
-1 cup corn kernels
-1 diced red and/or green pepper (two peppers are fine if you love peppers)
-cayenne or hot sauce to taste
To serve:
-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
-1 container sour cream
-nacho chips
-hot sauce to taste
What you do:
Put all chili ingredients except beans into a pot. Bring temperature up to medium high and stir, stir, stir. Once it’s really starting to cook, drop the temperature down to low – just above minimum. Stir in the beans, put a lid on it and let it simmer.
You can leave it simmering for hours and hours – just pop in to stir it every little while. Each day you may want to add half a cup of water. There is a fair bit of liquid that will cook off, just stir. Each day just put it on the stove and simmer if you’re around.
Chili is ready to serve after an hour, and is really really good, but it’s even better on day two, and on day three it’s perfect! Leftovers are just so good. Eat a bowl on its own, or sprinkle cheese or top with a dollop of sour cream – or both cheddar AND sour cream. You can stir in the hot sauce to your preference, I leave out the heat because my 7 year old hates spicy food, though my 5 year old can pretty much eat fire (like mama!).
Enjoy!