Superbowl Chili

Chili. It's a staple of this great American holiday - the Superbowl. Food, beer, football. The three essentials in life. Just kidding-ish. Let's be honest, all I care about is the food. Last year I got ambitious and made like a 12 lb pork shoulder for BBQ pulled pork. It was glorious, don't get me wrong, but it was kind of a lot of work. This year it was just me and my roommates taking it easy.... chili was a natural choice. This particular one has just a touch of heat, and is really filling and toasty. It's a big hit and really easy to bring together.

You'll need:
-1 small onion
-1 bell pepper (I used yellow but it doesn't really matter) - interesting fact, people in Australia call bell pepper capsicum. I was confused the entire time.
-1 lb ground beef
-2 cloves of garlic
-1 tablespoon of cumin
-1 tablespoon of chili powder
-1/2 tablespoon paprika (optional, but I love the flavor)
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
-1 can tomato sauce (recipe calls for 1 regular sized can, but I used almost all of a big sized can. Tomatoes are awesome, what can I say.)
-1 can of Rotel (or just diced tomatoes if you have that on hand)
-1 can of kidney beans
-1 can of black beans
-1 can of northern white beans

Ok! First, you'll want to dice up the onion and pepper.


While you're dicing, get a big dutch oven pot and start heating it up on medium to medium high heat. Throw in the pepper, onion, beef, and 2 cloves of minced garlic.


You'll want to cook this mixture until all the meat browns, and the onions and peppers are tender.


Almost done with the meat browning at this point! This should take about 6-8 minutes.

Bring the heat down to medium and add in the cumin, paprika, chili powder and black pepper. Be slightly alarmed at the ginormous amount of seasoning that is. Mix it together and cook for another minute or so. Might want to start opening all of your cans while this is melding together, my hand got a cramp when I did it.


Now, add in the Rotel, tomato sauce, and all of the beans. Ah the beans! They're so glorious.


Give it all a big stir and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Once it's bubblin', bring the chili back down to a simmer and let it hang out with the occasional stir for about 45 minutes. Gives it a chance to thicken up and all the spices just start making beautiful music together. Whoo it's so good.



That's literally it! Serve it up in a big bowl with some cheese and sour cream, and oh man you're in for a treat!



I ate two bowls. Don't tell anyone.

Enjoy! (And Geaux Saints! What a great game!)

<3

Courtzilla