My Current Chili

My current chili came about one day when I was out of tomatoes. I had cooked a pot of pinto beans, browned up the ground meat, toasted the spices, and was reaching for tomatoes to deglaze the fry pan. No tomatoes in the pantry, freezer, or even dried tomatoes. I just had to make do. Well, the resulting chili was delicious without tomatoes.


I serve chili two ways. Either cornbread or corn chips as the side dish. I have always just used the recipe on the corn meal to make it. Corn and beans complement each other for a complete protein.

We like to make a full pot of chili. After dinner, I make three or four lunches for Scott by freezing the chili in individual serving containers. I freeze cornbread in a sandwich bag for each serving. Or he can buy corn chips at work. That leaves us with just enough leftover for a meal of chili burgers or dogs.

My Current Chili
Pick over and rinse 1 lb pinto beans
Cover with water, bring to a boil, and then simmer for three hours

After three hours
Brown 1 lb ground beef
With ½ onion and two ribs celery, chopped

Drain the fat.
Toss into the still warm pan off the heat
2 TBSP chili powder
2 tsp cumin
Let toast for 30 seconds
Deglaze the pan with ½ cup red wine

Add the drained meat and spices to the beans.
Along with two to four salsa packets from your local taco hut

Let simmer at least 30 minutes. Over an hour is best.
Serves 6

If I have leftover refried beans, I add them with the ground beef.