chili, omg chili!
Well, I’ve been working on perfecting my chili recipe for some time now, and we tested the latest incarnation on dinner guests last night. I think it’s okay now!
I doubled this recipe and it made way more than I needed but I was able to send our friends home with some and still have leftovers for us. If you’re going to spend the time on it you might as well make lots right?! Yeah, in order to double the recipe, I did have to finally break down and get myself a large, 6 quart crockpot. And it’s red – oh so cute!
Anyway, it’s long but here is the recipe:
Crockpot Spicy Pork Chili
This chili does take a little time (so worth it), but not a lot of effort. It’s a pretty fluid recipe, meaning it’s never really the same twice if you do it right!
Day one ingredients:
Pork roast, whatever cut you like, I use a boneless loin, about 2 lbs.
1 bottle or can of beer, your choice
Roasting bag or crockpot
Hot sauce
Chili powder
*******************************
A day ahead of when you want to serve the chili, put the roast and the beer in the oven bag and follow the directions – usually 325 for 1 and ¼ hour for a 2 lb roast.
If you don’t have or don’t want to use the oven bag, (though I love it for easy cleanup,) you can cook the roast in the beer in your crockpot: chunk it up and cook on high for 2-3 hours, stirring once or twice.
After the roast is cooked and cooled, shred or cube it into tiny pieces and immerse it back into the cooking liquid. Add some hot sauce and some chili powder to your liking and let set overnight in the refrigerator. The meat will soak all the liquid back up. If it needs a little more liquid you can add another half a beer or so.
*******************************
Day two, now for the rest of the chili ingredients:
2 cans black beans, one rinsed and drained, one not
1 can small red beans, rinsed and drained
16 oz jar basic salsa, pick your own heat, I use medium. (or 12oz can tomato sauce, or diced tomatoes, plus chop your own green peppers, onions, jalapenos etc. I think it’s easier to use the salsa and no one will ever know.)
1 small onion, minced fine
3-4 cloves garlic, minced fine, or 1 heaping tbsp. pre-minced garlic, (do not use dry garlic powder if you can help it.)
big handful of fresh cilantro, chopped fine
packet of dry chili seasoning, taco seasoning, whatever you have, (or lots of extra chili powder)
at least a couple tbsp of cumin, more if you love it like I do (I use it by the handful!)
Don’t be afraid of the spices: black pepper, cayenne pepper if you like spicy, smoky paprika, sage, ground coriander seed.
*******************************
6 hours before serving time, (leave the pork alone!) start with a clean crockpot and throw in the drained and rinsed beans, salsa, extra onion, garlic, cilantro, and all the seasonings and spices. Lots and lots of spices!
Make sure your crockpot is large enough that it is only half – 2/3rds full at this point. You need room for the meat.
Let this cook on high, covered, stirring occasionally for four hours.
2 hours before serving time, add the pork, if there is a lot of liquid left you can dump it or add it depending on how thick you like your chili. Let this get hot again, half and hour or so, and then turn down to low. If it seems too watery you can leave the cover off for the last hour so it can thicken up. Keep stirring occasionally.
Serve with any favorite toppings: shredded cheddar, chopped green onions, sour cream.
If you want to print it, here it is in pdf:
If you try it, let me know what you think!
turkey talk
All week I’ve been meaning to post my turkey meatloaf recipe, but I’ve been too busy, um, cooking. And cleaning. And every time I cook, I have to clean again. Sigh.
I finally got the kitchen in great shape yesterday but was then asked to make cookies for dh’s work. Not that I mind baking cookies, and dh certainly offered to buy some instead. But, dude, that would totally ruin my reputation at his office! I am known as the brownie queen. His coworkers were hoping for brownies on cookie day! Instead, I adapted my brownie recipe and made super chocolaty cookies. Secret ingredient: homemade vanilla. It makes any baked good taste amazing.
I also sent along my lemon cookies. It’s a basic sugar cookie but you replace the vanilla with lemon extract. These cookies also have white chocolate chips and coconut. Secret ingredient: replace some of the plain white sugar with dry lemonade mix. Extra lemony goodness.
I finished baking at 9:15 last night. You can guess what my kitchen looks like this morning! Yep, time to clean again.
Anyway, on to the turkey meatloaf!
I haven’t used any ground beef in almost 13 years. (Except for that huge vat of chili I had to make for a fundraiser, yuck.) It’s just too greasy for us and after all these years we’ve come to prefer the taste of ground turkey and ground chicken. However. If not cooked properly it can be very dry, hence it’s bad reputation.
There are a couple of tricks I’ve learned that make a huge difference and I use them whether I’m making meatloaf, turkey burgers, meatballs, etc. The most obvious is not to overcook but you all knew that one.
The next is GRATE your onions! Use the smallest cheese grater you own and grate the peeled onions directly into the uncooked turkey mixture. This works really well with garlic too – and I hate using a garlic press – they are too hard to clean. (A nice flat cheese grater cleans up super easy.) The reason for this is that all the juices come out of the onion and go directly into the turkey. When you chop onions all you have are chopped onions. When you grate them you have onion juice and mush and lovely onion flavor = moist and flavorful meatloaf.
The last is: use fresh herbs. Yes, ground turkey is slightly bland, but that just means it takes on whatever flavor you want it to. It needs lots of herbs and spices. But if you use too many dry herbs you are taking moisture out of the turkey in order to rehydrate them. Use some fresh herbs and you are adding moisture. Makes so much sense right? It took me way too long to figure it out though.
Yes, I do grow some of my own herbs in little pots all over the kitchen. I use enough now that it gets a little expensive to buy it all the time. The best for me are sage, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, and lavender. I have a tough time keeping basil alive or I would grow that too.
Before I give you the recipe, let me first say that unless I’m baking I don’t measure anything so I hope pinchs and palmfuls don’t frustrate you!
1 lb of ground turkey
two handfuls of bread crumbs, plain or any flavor
handful of dry quick cooking oatmeal
1 egg (or 2 if they’re small)
2 small or one medium onion
a couple cloves of garlic depending how strong you like it
lots of fresh herbs, chopped fine. I use whatever I have on hand but especially oregano, parsley, sage, thyme, cilantro (aka coriander), and rosemary. (I love, love me some fresh cut rosemary, it’s just not the same even “fresh” from the store. Rosemary should not be like a piece of wood!)
lots of spices, including but not limited to: cumin, coriander seed, black pepper, chili powder, savory, marjoram, paprika, and whatever you don’t have of the above fresh herbs – use the dried.
couple squirts of ketchup in the mix, and a little more on top at the end
couple drizzles of olive oil, a little more if you have a lot of dried herbs, or if you use 1% lean turkey.
a little finely chopped spinach if you want to make it even heathier, but my dh won’t let me!
mix it all up, throw it in a bread pan, spread a little of the ketchup on top, stick it the oven, on say 350, for a half hour or so – I just keep and eye on it so I don’t know for sure. I even will cook this in my toaster oven – bread pan fits perfectly and I don’t have to heat up the whole big oven for one item.
I hope this didn’t sound difficult or complicated! It’s really the easiest meal ever, and it’s also very adaptable to your own tastes. Try the same recipe with some parmesan mixed in as meatballs, bake them on a cookie sheet for fifteen minutes and throw them in tomato sauce, yum! Or leave out the oatmeal, add an extra egg and you will have the best burger ever, at least my boys think so 
Filed Under cooking, recipes Tagged cookies, cooking, food, ground turkey, meatloaf, recipes