John's Chili

While I love to cook and bake on a regular basis, there is nothing as good as when someone else makes supper!  We were craving some warm comfort food one day and so John decided he was going to make a pot of chili in our crock pot.

He looked around on allrecipes.com, and found Boilermaker Tailgate Chili.  The recipe had over 2000 positive reviews, but it was huge!  So he decided to halve it and got to work using the recipe as a guideline. I really do love when he makes supper.

He cooked the chili for about 5 hours on low in the crock pot, and it was amazing! Sometimes I seem to forget how well he can cook because I am always in the kitchen :) I think I need to let him take over more often.

This recipe has some good spice, so if you don't want it to have so much heat you can half the chili and chipotle chili powders.


I was so sad to eat the last bowl of leftovers on Thursday. This is easily our new favourite chili recipe.

John's Chili

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 lb ground Italian sausage
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can beans in chipotle sauce
• 1 large can (about 28 oz) diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 small can (5.5 fl oz) can tomato paste
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 serrano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/4 pack of bacon, cooked and chopped
• 3 tsp beef bouillon powder
• 1/4 cup beer
• 1 tbsp chili powder (you can halve this if you don't enjoy spicy food)
• 1 tbsp chipotle chili powder (you can halve this if you don't enjoy spicy food)
• 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• sour cream and shredded cheese for toppings (optional)

1. Cook the ground beef and ground Italian sausage in a frying pan until cooked through.
2. Drain off grease and place the cooked meat in the crock pot
3. Add the rinsed kidney beans, chili beans with chipotle sauce, diced tomatoes (with juice), and tomato past and stir well
4. Add the diced onion, celery, bell peppers, serrano pepper, bacon, beef bouillon powder, and beer, stir well
5. Add the seasonings (chili powder, chipotle chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, oregano, cumin, hot sauce, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, and sugar. Once again stir well
6. At this point the chili will appear quite thick, but as it cooks more liquid will be added from the vegetables.
7. Turn the crock pot on low, and cook for at least 3 hours.  
8. After 3 hours, stir well and adjust seasonings if necessary. Allow to simmer on low until ready to serve.
9. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and some buns to clean the bowl
10. Enjoy!