Mom’s Chili
Mom's Chili
This is a basic, yet delicious chili, that I have been making for 40+ years. Growing up, when I could handle the cast iron pan and chop things, I was cooking. I make this often, finally got around to taking photos on 3 Nov 2016. I modified the recipe slightly to make the simmering hands off, no stirring or watching needed, I use a slow cooker to simmer the chili!
Ingredients
- 1 kilo minced pork, OR ground beef
- 1 bag dry red kidney beans, 500 gram bag
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
- 2 cartons tomato juice, OR use 4 cans of tomato paste and 16 cans of water
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Soak beans overnight.
- Drains beans and rinse well. Add to a large pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Cook until beans are soft, about 1-2 hours. Once beans are soft (if you can put a bean in your mouth and crush it with your tongue only then it is done), drain beans and set aside.
- Same large pot, rinsed out, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until translucent, 3-4 minutes.
- Add the minced pork or ground beef and chop up with a spatula and brown. Drain off most, not all of the fat, the fat adds flavoring.
- The minced pork, cooked beans, and spices added to the slow cooker.
- Tomato juice added and mixed into the bean, pork, and spices. Set to High setting and simmer this for 2-3 hours.
- After 2-3 hours, the spices are well blended and the chili is ready.
- I like to add dry pasta to my chili, it is a filler to extend it and is a good way to use up small amounts of pasta from making other dishes. I added about 1 cup of spiral pasta to the chili, just mix it in and simmer for another hour.
- Serve, I like to grate some cheese on the top.
Notes
For the tomato juice, you can use 2 cartons of juice, these are normal size cartons you find in Tesco. An alternative if no juice is available is to use tomato paste. To make juice from paste, it is easy, 1 can of paste and 4 cans of water, whisk to combine, use 4 cans if making the recipe as stated here.
Most expensive item is the beef or pork, pork is available where I live, beef is not. Beef would run 200 baht per kilo, beans, juice and other ingredients is minimal. Comes out to right about $1 per meal person, much less if minced pork is used.
Variants: You can add items to make the meal bigger, add 1 1/2 cups of dry macaroni while simmering, name changes then to Chili Mac (I do this a lot). Or add a couple of big scoops of cooked rice or just serve over rice.
Family recipe I have been making for years, AND a big thank you to my parents for showing me how to make this!
I make this often but always forgot about the photos, so when I made it yesterday, 3 Nov 2016, I took some photos of the process. I made a smaller batch this time, just about 600 grams of minced pork, 250 grams of dry kidney beans, 2 cans of paste and 8 cans of water, plus spices and added some dry pasta as well. Filling meal that will last me several days. Highly recommended.