Homemade Chili

This is another relatively recent recipe (from last fall) using dry beans and cooking them in the crock pot.

Chili
10/25/12

1 lb red beans (~2 c)
1 lb 93/7 ground beef (or turkey)
2 T chili powder
1 T cumin
½ t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1-2 t celery salt (to taste)
~1 ½ t salt (to taste)
1 can tomato paste mixed with 1 can water
V8 (a few cups, I just poured)

Sort, rinse beans, cover with several inches of water and soak overnight.  Drain, pour into crock pot and cover with a few inches of water.  Crumble in ground beef (yes, raw; may brown and drain in advance if prefer). Add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder.  Cook until beans are as tender as desired.  Add celery salt, regular salt, tomato paste, and V8 to taste and desired consistency.  Let simmer on low to allow flavors to blend.  *Note: Do NOT add celery salt, table salt, tomato paste or V8 until after beans are as tender as desired.  Salt and acid delay softening of beans which will make things take longer.

I cooked the beans, meat and spices on high for a few hours, then added the salt and tomato and cooked on low for a few more hours.  Time and setting is flexible and depends on time available and desired consistency of final product. (I actually did NOT soak the beans overnight when I first made this.  I forgot to soak them and rather than waiting an entire day to start, I decided to just try without soaking and it still worked great!)

The ground beef can be browned and drained in advance, but it was novel to try crumbling it in raw.  It was fully cooked within a couple of hours and the beans were tender by ~4 hours (on high).  I only use raw meat if it as at least 93% lean.  Anything less lean, I brown and drain off the fat prior to adding.

Note with cooking beans-the older the beans the longer they take to cook.  The beans I used had been purchased not long before making this recipe.