Douglas' Christmas Chili
Why I Love This Recipe
Every Christmas, for our annual open house, I make a lots of cookies (80-90 doz) but I also make a huge pot of this chili (20 qts in 2009). It was originally designed to feed ourselves during the open house, but now it is as popular, if not more so, than the cookies. This recipe started off as one included with a crock pot I got when heading off to college in 1982 (The crockpot is still in use today!), but I have modified it extensively over the years.
I serve this with extra sharp cheddar cheese. Some people like chopped onions on it.
I usually eat this by itself the first day, then have it over some sort of pasta the next and then chili dogs after that. It freezes well so make as much as you want and then store it away in meal-sized containers for a quick dinners.
Ingredients You'll Need
2 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Large onion
4-5 cloves garlic
1 lb ground turkey
1 - 12oz package Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage
1/2 cup red/white wine
5-6 14oz cans of your favorite plain tomato sauce or homemade, of course
4-5 cans of black beans
Splash of vinegar
5-6 Tbls Chili powder (not mexican chili powder, but the traditional one with cumin, etc included)
2 Tbls Dried Basil
3 Tbls Oregano
PInch Red pepper flakes
Small pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp Black pepper
Directions
Finely chop onions and garlic (I use a food processor) then saute until lightly browned in the olive oil
Add turkey and sausage and brown until no sign of pink
Add red/white wine
Cook until wine is absorbed
(Here is where it goes a bit by look and feel. Add more sauce and beans if you want to make more chili and then adjust the spices accordingly)
Add tomato sauce
Add black beans
Spoon up the meat, sauce and beans mixture and look at the ratio between the 3. You want to get a good mixture of all three in each spoonful.
If needed, add more black beans
Add splash of vinegar (under a tsp, probably. I have used everything from apple cider to balsamic, It just adds a little "tang" to the final taste.
Spices:
(again, taste this as you add the spices until you get taste you like)
Bring pot up to boil and then turn down to low simmer
Typically, it will cook down by about 1/3. The longer you simmer it, the better it tastes. It also tastes better the second day when you reheat it. (SMILE)
