FIRST PLACE CHILI
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First Place Chili recipe is a great cold-weather meal. Made in one pot, it’s an easy weeknight dinner for your family with plenty of leftovers.
Over the years I have tried more chili recipes than I can count on both hands trying to find the perfect mix of flavors to suit the Hubs. I’ve tried countless homemade recipes and many mixes before altering this Chili recipe numerous times.
He wanted the chili thick but still ‘soupy’. He wanted spicy, but not too spicy. And, yes, to beans. And I finally figured out he doesn’t like the taste a masa even though he insisted that he did.
Don’t let the name, First Place Chili, fool you. I’ve never won a competition with it. This recipe has simply come in first place with Hubs after many, many attempts at perfecting chili.
First Place Chili
First Place Chili
Ingredients
- 1 pound pork sausage regular flavor
- 1 pound ground beef you can use lean ground beef, ground chicken or turkey
- 1 large white onion chopped, about 1 cup or to your taste
- 10 ounces tomatoes and green chiles Rotel tomatoes
- 16 ounces chili beans drain & rinse if you're concerned about sodium
- 15 ounces beans drained & rinsed. Any beans will work; use your favorite. I used chili and great Northern today.
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 3 Tablespoons chili powder adjust to your liking this is what I've found we like
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3 Tablespoon masa harina instant corn masa mix- this will make it thicker. You can leave this out
Instructions
- Place sausage, beef and onion in a large stew pot over medium heat and cook until meat is browned and onions tender (about 15 min).
- Break the meat into crumbles as it cooks. Drain off excess fat. Mix the diced tomatoes, chili beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, salt paprika, oregano, garlic powder and cayenne pepper (and masa harina, if using).
- Bring the chili to a simmer and reduce heat. Simmer for at least an hour.
- Alternately, mix all ingredients in a slow-cooker and simmer for 4 hours on low.
Nutrition
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Can you leave out beans family don’t like beans or use less beans will it still come out good thank you
Yes, absolutely. You can leave them out and it’ll still be good. (I didn’t like beans for a long time.)
This chili was really good! Except for two small tweaks, I followed this recipe to the letter. Where the recipe says to use 3 tablespoons of chili powder, I used 2 1/2 tbsp of regular chili powder and 1/2 tbsp of chipotle chili powder. The second tweak I did, was using 1/2 tsp of regular paprika and 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika. It was fantastic! Thanks for the great recipe. 🙂
Love your subs! Thanks for commenting.