Category: chili

Slow Cooker Fire Roasted Brisket Chili.

This slow cooker brisket chili is one of our favorites! Made with fire roasted tomatoes and pinto beans, it’s so comforting, hearty and delicious. Chili season is here! Yes yes, it’s always chili season, but you know what I mean. Crunchy leaves, cool air, pumpkins and sweatshirts. I’m game anytime! This brisket chili is incredibly […]

The post Slow Cooker Fire Roasted Brisket Chili. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

This slow cooker brisket chili is one of our favorites! Made with fire roasted tomatoes and pinto beans, it’s so comforting, hearty and delicious.

Chili season is here!

slow cooker fire roasted brisket chili

Yes yes, it’s always chili season, but you know what I mean. Crunchy leaves, cool air, pumpkins and sweatshirts. I’m game anytime!

slow cooker with brisket and peppers and onions

This brisket chili is incredibly hearty, super smoky and so wildly flavorful. It just might be Eddie’s new favorite chili and that’s saying something because he LOVES chili.

Chili is the only soup he really truly loves. 

So I love experimenting with different chili recipes and I’m so glad this one came to fruition. I often have a few cuts of meat in my freezer, so having a great chili recipe to utilize that meat is the perfect option. 

slow cooker with brisket, fire roasted tomatoes and pinto beans

It is a bit high-maintenance, in that you have to cook the brisket first and THEN make the chili. It’s totally worthy it though.

Let me tell you how I make it happen!

The night before, I throw the brisket in the slow cooker. This way it cooks overnight and gets super fall-apart tender. Once it’s tender in the morning, you can choose to either shred it or chop it, whichever you would like. Your preference!

Then everything goes into the slow cooker. You can cook it for a few hours on high or let it simmer all day on low. I have a slow cooker that has a sauté option (it’s seriously amazing and I use it for SO many things!) – this version right here. So I like to remove my brisket, and in that same crock, sauté the onions and peppers with spices to really develop the flavor.

This isn’t necessary of course – you can throw everything right in, raw onions and all. But I do find that sautéing them first starts you off with a great layer of flavor. I am ALL about building layers of flavors in my recipes and allowing the flavors to fully develop. It’s the key to making a great meal happen!

Whether you cook the onions and peppers or not, everything goes into the slow cooker!

slow cooker fire roasted brisket chili

These are the key ingredients that make this recipe absolutely delish: 

Fire roasted tomatoes. These are pretty much the only diced tomatoes I use these days. They have such great charred, smoky flavor. I use them in my tomato soup and minestrone and many other things. I absolutely love them!

Pinto beans. Pintos may just be my favorite bean. I love how creamy they are – and also I love their size. You can use any bean here, but I find that pinto is my favorite. If you’d like to keep things traditional with kidney beans, go for it. Or use black beans. Whatever you love!

The perfect blend of spices, like smoked paprika, a hint of cumin, chili powder (of course!), a touch of dried oregano and even some crushed red pepper flakes for a bit of heat. 

Some beer… or stock. I love using beer, just like this game day chili that uses a whole bottle. It adds so much flavor and richness to the soup.

The brisket, which is a no brainer. Again, chopped or shredded. Your call. (more…)

The post Slow Cooker Fire Roasted Brisket Chili. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

Classic Chili Cheese Fries

Chili cheese fries are always a hit! Make a batch of baked fries and top with a simple chili, cheese…

A Couple Cooks – Recipes worth repeating.

Chili cheese fries are always a hit! Make a batch of baked fries and top with a simple chili, cheese sauce, and toppings.

Chili Cheese Fries

When it comes to fries, there’s nothing more epic than a platter of Chili Cheese Fries! Imagine: that combination of deliciously hearty chili, crispy potatoes, and gooey cheese sauce is comfort food at its finest. Why settle for a plate of fries when you can add chili? This spin on the traditionally heavy dish is fresher than most, featuring a black bean chili and a lighter (but just as tasty) cheese sauce. In fact, this genius way to repurpose chili can even count as dinner!

Elements in these chili cheese fries

Chili cheese fries have three essential elements: French fries, chili, and cheese: either melted or incorporated as a sauce. This way of serving fries is very popular in the US, and originated in the 1950’s with the invention of prepared cheese products. Here are the elements you’ll need:

  • Fries: make these Homemade Baked Fries
  • Chili: try Black Bean Chili, Quick Chili or any of your favorite chili recipes
  • Cheese: make the simple cheese sauce below with whole milk and cheddar cheese
  • Toppings: top with pico de gallo, sour cream, and thinly sliced green onion
Chili Cheese Fries

Time saving tips!

The elements above are listed in the order we like to make chili cheese fries. Get the baked fries started by cutting them and soaking the fries, then get the chili simmering, and make the sauce just before serving. Here are a few quick tips that can save more time when you’re prepping:

  • Make the chili in advance, or use leftover chili. This is the perfect way to repurpose leftover chili! Just spoon it over the fries with a slotted spoon to minimize sogginess.
  • Use baked store-bought fries. There are some great brands of fries on the market that are more whole food spins on this usually processed product. Find a brand with minimal ingredients, then bake them up for quick assembly.
Chili Cheese Fries

Making the easy cheese sauce

The genius part of this chili cheese fries recipe? The easy cheese sauce! Most cheese sauces require you to make a roux by heat flour and butter together first to give the sauce a thick body. But we’ve created an even easier spin that requires two main ingredients: milk and cheese!

  • This 2-ingredient sauce has a slightly lighter texture than most. It’s not as thick because it doesn’t use flour. This also makes it gluten-free!
  • Use whole milk. This makes for the richest, creamiest body.

Chili cheese fries…for dinner!

These chili cheese fries taste decadent: but they’re actually lighter than most recipes. In fact, you can get away with calling them dinner. Here’s why:

  • The fries are just potatoes and olive oil. This is part of a healthy diet!
  • The chili is vegetarian and made of mostly vegetables. Black beans, corn, quinoa, tomatoes, onions: all healthy, good-for-you ingredients! You can choose a meaty chili if you like, which will make this recipe heavier and more caloric.
  • The cheese sauce is minimal. Many cheese sauces pack in loads of cheese. This recipe has just enough. If you’d like to go even more minimal, simply sprinkle with a few handfuls of cheddar cheese and pop it in the broiler to melt the cheese.
Chili Cheese Fries

Variations: meaty, vegan and more

Want to mix up these chili cheese fries? Here are a few ideas for different variations on the theme:

More fries recipes

We love fries over here: and there are lots of ways to make them that are a healthy spin! Here are a few more fries recipes to try:

Print
Chili Cheese Fries

Classic Chili Cheese Fries

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 4 to 6
  • Diet: Vegetarian
Print Recipe

Description

Chili cheese fries are always a hit! Make a batch of baked fries and top with a simple chili, cheese sauce, and toppings.

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe Baked French Fries
  • 2 cups Black Bean Chili, Quick Chili (with ground beef or plant-based crumbles), or other favorite chili recipe*
  • ¼ cup whole milk (or substitute 2%)
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 green onion
  • Pico de gallo, for serving
  • Sour cream, for serving
  • Hot sauce, for serving (optional)

Instructions

  1. Make the Baked French Fries, following that recipe. (You also can use frozen fries and skip this step.) While the fries soak, go to Step 2.
  2. Start the Black Bean Chili or Quick Chili, or use leftovers of your favorite chili recipe. Allow it to simmer while baking the fries. 
  3. Directly before serving, make the cheese sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the whole milk and the salt over medium heat. Once hot, add the shredded cheese a little bit at a time, stirring and melting before adding more cheese until all is incorporated (this should take about 3 minutes total).
  4. To serve, place the fries on a platter. Scoop out 2 cups of chili with a slotted spoon and add them over the top. Top with the warm cheese sauce, green onion, pico de gallo and sour cream. Serve immediately. 

Notes

For vegan, use Vegan Chili and Vegan Nacho Cheese.

  • Category: Appetizer or Main Dish
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: Chili cheese fries

A Couple Cooks - Recipes worth repeating.

Easy Black Bean Chili

This Black Bean Chili recipe is easy to make and full of big flavor! It’s cozy and hearty, the ideal…

A Couple Cooks – Recipes worth repeating.

This Black Bean Chili recipe is easy to make and full of big flavor! It’s cozy and hearty, the ideal vegetarian dinner idea.

Black Bean Chili

Can you have too many chili recipes? We think not. Introducing our new favorite easy spin…this Black Bean Chili recipe! It’s beyond simple to make, and the flavor is outstanding. (We hope you’ll agree.) It’s got a hint of smokiness to highlight the tangy tomatoes and savory black beans. Top it with your favorite toppings, and it’s so hearty and savory, you’ll forget it’s healthy, too.

Ingredients in this black bean chili recipe

This vegetarian black bean chili recipe was inspired by open fire cooking. In fact, we first made it around our firepit during a kitchen reno! We adapted our healthy chili recipe to be even simpler so it was easy enough to cook on a fire. This is the stovetop version of it, and it’s got lots of great ingredients to bring massive flavor with little effort:

  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Olive oil and butter
  • Quinoa
  • Black beans
  • Canned tomatoes
  • Corn
  • Mustard, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce
  • Chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and salt

The flavor secrets here? The butter adds the richness you need in a vegetarian chili. The mustard, ketchup and Worcestershire add tangy and savory notes. The kicker at the end? Adding a bit of smoked paprika, which helps to emulate that smokiness of the campfire chili we were inspired by.

Black Bean Chili

Chili toppings: dress it up!

This vegetarian black bean chili is simple and elegant. In fact, you only really need to dice an onion and garlic, and let your stove do the rest of the work for you! Once it’s done, dress it up with the toppings of your choice. Here are our top choices, and then a few more creative ideas:

  • Sour cream and cheese: Just a little goes a long way! We think these are required. For vegan, use Cashew Cream or Vegan Queso.
  • Green onion: Thinly sliced green onion is the best fresh accessory.
  • Cilantro: Fresh cilantro leaves are a great addition.
  • Hot sauce: Naturally! A favorite is a Mexican hot sauce like Cholula.
  • Roasted salted pepitas: This unique option adds a salty crunch.
  • Pickled jalapenos or onions: Pickled jalapeños add a kick! If you think ahead, pickled onions are a favorite of ours: they add bright color and tangy flavor.

Leftover storage

This black bean chili recipe stores well and is great for leftovers! Here are a few notes on leftover storage:

  • Refrigerate for up to 3 days. It can become very thick, so you may need to add a splash of water when reheating.
  • Freeze for up to 3 months. This recipe works well frozen in a freezer-safe container.
Chili Cheese Fries

Make it a meal: ways to serve black bean chili

There are so many ways to serve this black bean chili recipe — straight up in a bowl, or with more creative options! Here are a few ways to accessorize it:

Variation: cook it on an open fire

Sure, you probably won’t do this every day! But this black bean chili recipe is an ideal campfire chili, too. We first made this one over an open fire when our kitchen was undergoing a renovation, and it worked wonderfully! The fire infuses an incredible smokiness to the flavor. Here are a few notes:

  • Use a hardwood for the fire, like oak or cherry. These woods have the best flavor for cooking food.
  • Follow the recipe but omit the smoked paprika. You don’t need it since the fire infuses smoky flavor.
  • Advanced prep for camping: If you’re taking it camping, prep the minced onion and garlic and place in a sealed container. Place the ingredients from water through kosher salt in another large sealed container (keep out the dry quinoa and add when cooking).

Let us know if you try it in the comments below! It’s a fun variation, though we typically make this one on the stovetop.

Black Bean Chili Recipe

More chili recipes

This black bean chili is our new favorite, but we’ve got lots of other chili recipes for the season! Here are a few to try:

This black bean chili recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, replace the butter as noted in the recipe below.

Print
Black Bean Chili

Easy Black Bean Chili

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings
  • Diet: Vegetarian
Print Recipe

Description

This Black Bean Chili recipe is easy to make and full of big flavor! It’s cozy and hearty, the ideal vegetarian dinner idea.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ⅓ cup dry quinoa
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 15-ounce cans black beans, drained (not rinsed)
  • 2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes, fire roasted if possible
  • 4 tablespoons salted butter (replace with 2 tablespoons olive oil or refined coconut oil for vegan)
  • 1 15-ounce can corn (or 1 ½ cups frozen corn)
  • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons each chili powder and dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon each garlic powder and cumin
  • 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Instructions

  1. Dice the onion. Mince the garlic.
  2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender.
  3. Add all other ingredients except for the smoked paprika. Simmer for 25 minutes, then stir in the smoked paprika. Serve immediately with toppings of your choice. Store leftovers refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for 3 months.
  4. Campfire chili instructions: Follow the instructions above, but remove the smoked paprika (the fire will add smoky flavor). If you’re taking it camping, prep the minced onion and garlic and place in a sealed container. Place the ingredients from water through kosher salt in another large sealed container (keep out the dry quinoa and add when cooking). Keep everything cool until making the chili.
  • Category: Main dish
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: Black bean chili, black bean chili recipe

A Couple Cooks - Recipes worth repeating.

Our 19 Favorite Ground Beef Recipes

When it comes to dinnertime, a pound of ground beef can be the start of something great. I’m thinking meatballs floating in tomato-butter sauce or minestrone soup (or even grape jelly—don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!). Or maybe smash burgers slathe…

When it comes to dinnertime, a pound of ground beef can be the start of something great. I’m thinking meatballs floating in tomato-butter sauce or minestrone soup (or even grape jelly—don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!). Or maybe smash burgers slathered with ketchup and mustard, shatteringly crisp lumpia, spicy kebabs wrapped tightly in chapati, a steaming bowl of chili with a skillet of cornbread on the side. Whichever direction your taste buds are sending you, these ground beef recipes will feed a crowd.

Some of these recipes are takes on classic dishes that swap in grains or vegetarian protein for some of the beef. And even if you’re not a meat eater at all (but have somehow found yourself reading this, a roundup of ground beef recipes), there are still options. Swap in a ground faux meat like Impossible or Beyond, which both make vegan ground “beef” offerings that would work relatively seamlessly in any of these 19 ground beef recipes.

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Brined, Roast Pork

I’m often asked what my favorite cookbooks are and invariably I pull out a copy of The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. It’s one of those rare books where you learn something from every sentence on every page, and in every recipe that you make from it. Judy was an amazing cook and whatever she made was unusually good, in spite of its (seemingly)…

I’m often asked what my favorite cookbooks are and invariably I pull out a copy of The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. It’s one of those rare books where you learn something from every sentence on every page, and in every recipe that you make from it. Judy was an amazing cook and whatever she made was unusually good, in spite of its (seemingly) relative simplicity, ranging from the lightest ricotta gnocchi you’ll ever have to the legendary Zuni roast chicken, which was worth the one-hour wait after you ordered it at the restaurant. It gave you plenty of time to have a margarita, a pile of shoestring fries, and a classic Caesar Salad. (Fun fact: I worked at Zuni Cafe when I first moved to San Francisco and made a lot of Caesar Salads, which, if I may be so bold, were excellent and the recipe is in the book.)

Continue Reading Brined, Roast Pork...

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Crockpot Turkey Chili One of Josh’s favorite post-ski meals is his Slow Cooker Turkey Chili. He throws all of the ingredients into the slow cooker before he heads up the mountain and when he comes home he has a hot bowl of chili waiting for him.&…

Crockpot Turkey Chili One of Josh’s favorite post-ski meals is his Slow Cooker Turkey Chili. He throws all of the ingredients into the slow cooker before he heads up the mountain and when he comes home he has a hot bowl of chili waiting for him.  It’s the perfect meal for a cold day or…

The post Slow Cooker Turkey Chili appeared first on Two Peas & Their Pod.

Slow Cooker Chili

I decided this year I was going to make peace with my slow cooker. I was surprised by how much I didn’t take to it, which I’ve documented here and there. Like bread machines, Instant Pots, Thermomix, and cast irons skillets, someone wrote about the latter on my Facebook page, “It’s just a PAN…” (in all-caps), they certainly have their fans. I do like my…

I decided this year I was going to make peace with my slow cooker. I was surprised by how much I didn’t take to it, which I’ve documented here and there. Like bread machines, Instant Pots, Thermomix, and cast irons skillets, someone wrote about the latter on my Facebook page, “It’s just a PAN…” (in all-caps), they certainly have their fans. I do like my cast iron skillet very much, but my life doesn’t change radically when I reach for mine. Although wouldn’t it be great if that was all it took? 😀

My appliance company gave me the slow cooker after I hounded them for three years to get reimbursed for a dishwasher repair charge they said they’d reimburse me for. I was happy to have finally settled that debt and move on with my life, but am still unclear as to why it took three years for them to tell me they couldn’t send me a check for reimbursement. Since I already had a grille-pain (toaster), a robot (food processor), and a boulloire (hot water kettle), I went with the slow cooker, which I’ve been determined to fall in love with.

Continue Reading Slow Cooker Chili...

Homemade Chili Powder

With winter in full swing, it’s chili season around here — time for our favorite cold-weather dish. But after recently running out of chili powder, we decided to make our own, and I’m so glad we did.
This homemade chili powder takes just 15 minutes to…

Homemade Chili Powder

With winter in full swing, it’s chili season around here — time for our favorite cold-weather dish. But after recently running out of chili powder, we decided to make our own, and I’m so glad we did.

This homemade chili powder takes just 15 minutes to make when using whole dried chiles, and just 5 minutes to make if using pre-ground chiles. And we must say, it’s so fresh and much better than store-bought, so there’s no going back!

Homemade Chili Powder from Minimalist Baker →

Turkey Chili (with Leftover Turkey)

This easy Turkey Chili is a great way to use up turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving and Christmas! Make it with shredded turkey (dark or white meat), kidney beans, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Continue reading “Turkey Chili (with Leftover Tu…

This easy Turkey Chili is a great way to use up turkey leftovers from Thanksgiving and Christmas! Make it with shredded turkey (dark or white meat), kidney beans, onion, garlic, and tomatoes.

Continue reading "Turkey Chili (with Leftover Turkey)" »