Italian Texas Chili

I got to thinking about the Chili Cook-Off that we went to last weekend... some of those chili concoctions were downright frightening. I offered to make my own chili recipe for my husband and he looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. Not surprising.... since I don't eat chili. I guess he thought since I didn't eat it, I couldn't make it. (Oh he of little faith.)

There is now a small pot of my own chili in the fridge... which my husband said was very good. I hadn't made chili in at least 15 years, so I figured I'd better type the recipe in here so in case he wants a second pot of it, I'll remember what I did the first time. (Oh me of little faith.)

First, I browned up some ground beef.... the best that I could find in the store.... I think it was 98% lean ground sirloin. I browned that up with a diced-up medium-sized Vidalia onion, as well as a diced-up sweet red pepper. I let the onion and red peppers cook down till they were nearly carmelized, before adding in the ground beef and letting all of that brown together. I added in salt and pepper.... then a few cups of crushed tomatoes (I used canned Progresso). Just enough of a large-size can to make the mixture like a very thick stew. (I saw too many chili recipes at the Chili Cook-Off that were too thin and watery.) ---- (No beans in this chili recipe... but if my husband liked beans in his chili, I'd use the large red kidney beans.)

After that was all mixed together, I let it all simmer on very low heat for about half an hour. Then I started adding chili powder. Extra-strength Texas-style chili powder. Teaspoonful by teaspoonful, into the meat mixture it went. I actually tasted a tiny bit of the chili after each addition of the chili spice. When my mouth started to feel numb, I added another teaspoonful and called it quits. Then I let my husband taste it.... he said it was "mild." So I added in a full tablespoonful of the chili powder. That did it.... it was no longer mild... but I lost track of how many teaspoonfuls and tablespoonfuls went into the pot.

Which means if I make chili again, I'll have to wing it again with the chili powder. (Oh ye of little spice.)