Crockpot chili
Brown the beef, dump everything else in, and walk away: a big batch of hearty two-bean chili that keeps 4 days in the fridge, with plenty to freeze.
- 500 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 8
- About $2.61 a serving
- 400 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 8 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 2 cans diced tomatoes, with the juice
- 2 cans tomato sauce, 8 oz each
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (optional)
- ½ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- ¼ cup chili powder
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 400 calories, 29 g protein, 29 g carbs and 19 g fat, and costs about $2.61 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No kidney beans? Black beans work.
- No pinto beans? Black beans work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No diced tomatoes? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and bell pepper, the garlic, and and the beans.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Cook the beef and onion in a large over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up, until no pink remains, about 10 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Browning the beef first is the one step you shouldn’t skip. Raw beef in a slow cooker turns out gray and greasy.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Spoon off the fat, then scrape the beef and onion into the slow cooker.
Add the bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and both beans, and stir well.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.
Timer: 420 min
Stir, taste, and add more salt or chili powder if you want it bolder. Serve with cheese and sour cream.
Dolly’s tip: Freeze leftovers flat in zip-top bags. They thaw in about 20 minutes in a bowl of cool water.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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