Savory Sundays: Flatlander Chili

I don't often make chili. I have only made it once, and that was when I first started cooking. It's not that I don't like chili, just haven't really gotten around to it I suppose. Also, growing up, we never really had chili - it's not really a Mexican-style dish at all. Whatever chili we did have was out of a can or from fast food, like in chili cheese fries or some similar abomination. Perhaps that's why I never really considered it.

Anyway, I finally made it this week again and it was something I really should have done earlier. This chili turned out wonderful and I will make it again, for sure. I probably won't try other chili recipes, except for the white chicken chili recipe I came across some time ago that I really should make soon. But that will have quite a different flavor I imagine.

This chili recipe is called Flatlander Chili, a recipe I got from All Recipes.

What you'll need:

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped poblano chile
1/4 cup chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 cups canned red beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup cornmeal (optional)

All together now:

The Paprika sneaked into the picture. I didn't use any and it didn't call for it. Guess it just wanted some attention. Anyway, you won't see any ground beef since it was browning when the rest of the ingredients got together.

Now, I was a bit worried about this step to be honest. It didn't say to add any spices to the meat, just to brown it. I was worried that once it got into the chili, it wouldn't really have any flavor. But that wasn't the case at all. Still, I wonder if you would be able to add spices in this step to add something to it... but then again, the chili turned out great.

Another part of this recipe I enjoyed was the ease and simplicity of making it. Again, not sure if all chili is like this but all I did was brown the meat and then toss everything into a pot (or kettle as it called for).

Here's everything ready to be tossed in:

Again, this recipe calls for a green bell pepper but I use poblano chiles whenever green bells are called for. I like the flavor better and there's no added heat.

Here's what everything looks like in the pot:


My pot there could barely hold the chili! I have one that's a bit bigger and I may use that one next time. But I really like to use this one so we'll see. I suppose since it turned out fine I'll just use this one. I added the cornmeal as was suggested by a reviewer on the original recipe. The cornmeal added some thickness to it, and the consistency for me was perfect. I don't know what it would have been like without it but I wanted it thicker instead of thinner and that seemed to do the trick.

As a side dish I made these Sweet Corn Muffins. I took pictures of all the steps but then forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Those did not last long at all.

This meal was fantastic. I had intended to freeze some of the chili but, well, it didn't last long at all. No freezing necessary!