Back by popular demand, my very own Chilly Night Chili Recipe originally posted in fall of 2016 along with 18 other bloggers. This time, my recipe only. I will leave a link for the former post if you wish to check out some of the others, however, in two years time many bloggers may no longer have those websites.
You know I love to spin a story so you can’t just have my recipe without the history behind it.
Chili was one of my mother’s specialties. Still is at 90 years old. UPDATE: Mom passed away last month. I am so glad that I have posts like this to remember her in. She taught me to make it and it was one of the only things that I was able to make from scratch and from memory. It is a great one pot meal and definitely a Chilly Night favorite!
Over time, I tweaked her recipe to my tastes and it remained fairly constant over the past 30 years until we had dinner at our friends, the Yowell’s home last year. Gloria made chili that took all day long to cook. Ours took 20 minutes. She had a lot of different toppings than us and some different chili ingredients. So after making her version at least 3 -4 times last winter, this fall I have combined the best of hers with the best of mine and am really excited to pass it on to you!
Oh and by the way, you know how mistakes can sometimes lead to great discoveries?
Well, that happened with my chili. My friend Gloria used both beef and pork in her chili and I was reminded of Bev’s Famous Meatloaf (my all time favorite recipe) that also combines the two meats and it is amazing.
So the first Chili I made for this season, I had my beef and my pork sausage. I started unpacking it to brown. Suddenly I realized I had ground pork instead of beef. So that chili was all pork! It was so good and I can tell you that the texture of the meat is much softer and you cannot tell that it isn’t beef. Pork, the other white meat, is also a healthy choice!
Ingredients ( I don’t measure, I taste, so season to taste though I will give a guess)
1 lb ground sausage
1 lb sage sausage (found by the bacon in the meat case oh and you can use Italian or Maple too!)
1 large can chili beans ( sometimes I combine cans of white too)
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can diced tomatos
1 large can tomato paste
1 can diced green chilis
1 can Rotel tomatoes
2 cans Mexican Corn ( here I used Chipolte white corn here)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 onion diced
1 green pepper or other color diced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons (at least) Tabasco or Hot Sauce
3 – 4 tablespoons Chili Powder
2 tablespoons Cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Water to thin to consistency desired
(optional…1 teaspoon sugar, or molasses, beer instead of water, 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard)
Directions:
Brown the meat and drain
Meanwhile combine remaining ingredients in a large pot.
Add meat and stir.
Heat to boiling and then simmer on low for 20 minutes minimum or as long as you like. Taste after about 15 minutes to determine heat (spice) or sweet or salt and tweak to taste! I like mine spicy, my family not so much.
(Corn not stirred in yet.)
Now I was going to share my favorite Cornbread Recipe but family tradition trumped.
My kids grew up with our grilled cheese on Chili Night and we dipped them in our chili…YUM!
So in case you have never had a REAL GRILLED CHEESE, here is that recipe.
Ingredients:
White Bread Preferred (we had to use wheat for ours this time)
Velvetta Cheese Original or Mexican ( again depends on your taste buds)
Soft Spread Butter
Directions:
Heat your flat pan up to med-high
Butter one side of a piece of bread with a nice thick spread
Place butter side down in hot pan and lay a 1/4 in slice of Velveeta on the unbuttered side plus another half slice
Top the cheese with a piece of bread butter side up
Flip when browned, depends on the heat
Brown the other side and there you go!
Chili Toppings:
Totally maker’s choice. Here are a few of our faves~
Chopped Onion
Sliced Jalapeno
Shredded Mexican Cheese
Sour Cream
Soup Crackers
What’s for dessert?
Well Happy Apples of course! I buy mine at Walmart, Carmel, nuts and Granny Smiths.
Thank you so much for reading my recipe. As a bonus to you, I have included a Free Printable Recipe Card for Chilly Nite Chili!
To visit the original 18 Bloggers Recipe Post, click here.
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