Beanless Chili

Cooking for picky eaters is no fun. In my world veggies are hearty additions to stews, sauces and soups. However, for my hubby they are objects to avoid, leading to a disgarded pile on the side of his plate that inevitably ends up in the garbage. Every once in a while he gets so fed up with my experiments that he'll take a meal or two here and there into his own hands. Today he did just that with a crockpot full of beanless chili. Yup, bean-less and tomato-less and onion-less, etc. etc. etc. But it was still good.

While I was sleeping in (as is customary on the weekends) he was busy looking up what turned out to be a pretty decent recipe on AllExperts.com. (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Soups-751/Beanless-Chili.htm)

Here is his adaptation of that recipe:
3 lbs ground beef
2 tblsp veg oil
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
4-6 tblsp chili powder
2 tblsp ground cumin
3 tblsp flour
1 tblsp leaf oregano
2 cans (13 3/4 ounces each) beef broth
1tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Heat the vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add beef, stirring frequently until meat changes color but does not brown. Lower heat, stir in garlic and combine chili powder, cumin and flour.  Sprinkle the meat with the chili mixture, stirring until meat is evenly coated. Crumble oregano over meat.

At this point spoon the meat mixture into your crockpot. Then add 1 1/2 cans of the broth to the crockpot and stir until the liquid is well blended.  Lastly, add the salt and pepper and turn the crockpot on low, setting the timer for six hours. At about 5 hrs and 15 min, turn the temperature up to high for the remainder of the six hours. While the chili will be ready to eat at this point (hopefully you have more patience than my hubby who wanted to eat it right after turning the crockpot on), it'll be even better after it's been refrigerated overnight when the flavors have had a better chance to meld together.

 

As for a side dish, while cornbread and/or saltines are typical, we resorted to fluffy biscuits...a great choice. Enjoy, I promise even your pickiest eater will love it!