Robyn's Chili Recipe

I've tried so many different chili recipes over the years. Some simple, some complex, some with only a few ingredients some with far too many ingredients. Finally, I started playing around with things to come up with a simple and consistent recipe of my own for just regular old chili. Last year I finally made the one that everyone liked and said this is it, stop messing with the recipe. We had this tonight for dinner so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

1 1/2 pounds coarse ground hamburger (sometimes called chili grind)
1 onion (white or yellow), chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chili powder (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 cups beef broth
1 can tomato sauce (14 ounce or so)
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (14 ounce or so)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Lightly brown hamburger in large pot. Drain fat from pan. Return pan to stove with meat and add onions and garlic. Cook 5 minutes stirring regularly. Add the chili powder and cumin and stir to coat. Cook about 1 minute. Add broth, tomato sauce, kidney beans, water, sugar, and tomato paste. Stir well. Bring up to low boil and then reduce heat and let simmer at least 60 minutes partly covered. Stir regularly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once it is to the consistency you like you can put on low and cover fully and then hold on the stove for a couple of hours with no problem. Serve with your favorite chili fixings like chopped onion, shredded cheese, pasta, crackers, pepper sauce, etc.

No super spicy chili with this recipe. Everyone has their own preference on that so I prefer to provide hot sauces, pepper sauces, onions, chopped jalapeno, etc. for them to spice it to their liking. The chili has a more beefy flavor because of the broth which we really enjoy. Many of the chili recipes I have tried in the paste are too tomato-y. This isn't a huge batch, but enough to feed 4 easily, but can easily be doubled (or more) for bigger crowds. Everyone who eats it seems to like it and usually takes seconds (ore more), including the picky eaters of the group. If you don't have ground cumin you can leave it out, but it does add a nice smoky flavor. I would recommend getting some for your spice cabinet and try adding it. It's one of my favorite spices to cook with. If you want to cheat a little you can use dehydrated minced onion and garlic powder (I won't tell), but it is better with fresh. The beef broth can just be one can (about 14 oz) if you prefer that type, just add a little extra water to make up for the difference in volume. Draining and rinsing the beans is very important, helps keep everyone from being so gassy after eating all that chili!

Be sure to let me know if you try it. Enjoy!