So the name of this chili is a bit of a lie. In addition to salt, pepper, and olive oil, there are only 5 ingredients to this chili. It is super easy to prep, and then it cooks in a slow cooker until all the flavors blend and meld together.
Recipe Note:
This recipe is a slow cooker recipe.
Ingredients
1 white or yellow onion, chopped fine
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground meat (beef or turkey)
2 28oz cans diced tomatoes
2 15oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
5 dried whole chipotle chilis
approximately 2 teaspoons salt
approximately 1/2 teaspoon pepper
If you can’t find dried chipotle chilies you can use 1 1/2 tablespoons of canned chipotle chili in adobo paste
Instructions
Add the onions and olive oil to a pan and cook over medium to medium high heat.
After the onions have started to turn translucent add the ground beef.
Stir and break up the beef while it is cooking. You will know you are done when all of the ground meat has separated completely into small bits.
Add the beef and onions to the slow cooker
Add the beans, chilis, and tomatoes (in that order). The tomatoes should go on top so their liquid covers the other ingredients and the chili will cook evenly.
Add salt and pepper.
Cover and slow cook. The cooking time will vary from 6 hours to 12 hours depending on your slow cooker.
Remove the chipotle chilis before serving.
Additional Notes:
The amount of salt will vary depending the type of salt you use and the size of grain. It is better to put too little salt in during the cooking process and then add to taste after cooking is done.
Although I like this recipe with ground beef, I particularly like it with cuts of beef that have a lot of connective tissue. My favorite is beef cheek, but stew meat or other inexpensive tough cuts of meat work just as well. These tougher cuts with connective tissue when slow cooked add a lot of richness due to high collagen content. When using cuts of meat instead of ground beef, cook the onions and add them to the slow cooker. Then lay the meat in the slow cooker as flat as possible and continue with the beans, chilis, and tomatoes. (Some people will say that you should brown the met before adding, but I find this to be an extra step for a small difference in taste). Make sure the meat is completely covered, then slow cook as normal. When the chili is done cooking, shred the meat by pulling it apart with two forks while still submerged in the chili. My wife affectionately renamed my beef cheek chili as “Funky Chili”.