Chili Season -- The Boss Offers Her Recipe

It's Chili Season, folks - or what non-foodie's refer to as Fall.

So it's time for The Boss to put her chili skills to work and make a pot or two, or three. This year, though, we decided to take a slightly different approach. Basically, she'd write everything down and I would do the actual cooking. Then once I had her recipe down pat, I would begin making my personal modifications with the next few batches, and come up with my own style, which in the end would give us two or three separate chili recipes. Because, let's face it, no foodie can have too many recipes of anything.

I've always been the kind of guy, who when he craves some chili, buys a can of Chili Man, or swings by the local Steak-n-Shake or Wendy's. So with that in mind, my first instinct is to try to take The Boss's recipe and move it sideways to emulate some of the properties of either Wendy's or Steak-n-Shake (I haven't decided which one to try first). I could simply go out to YouTube and watch a dozen different videos on how to make copycat versions of each one, but where's the fun in that? I think it'll be more..."educational" (wink) to visit both restaurants a few more times and really study the chili, get to know the properties of each, and incorporate this in-the-field knowledge to my cooking artillery.

But first, let's start with the base, i.e. the main recipe I'll be working from. I want to call it The Boss's Chili, but since I've already named a pizza after her, I'll need to come up with a new name eventually. Its working title at the moment is: Ta-Da Chili.

----- Ta-Da Chili -----

Ingredients

• 1 can red beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 large green pepper (diced)
• 1 large red bell pepper (diced)
• 1 red/purple onion (diced)
• 6 cloves of medium-sized garlic (diced)
• 2 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 lbs of lean ground beef
• 1 lbs of lean ground turkey
• two packets of chili seasoning (this time, The Boss chose Chili Man brand seasoning)
• 2-4 cups of water (per preference)

Directions:

• Combine the meats and brown in a skillet. Drain if necessary. If the meat is lean enough, then don't drain and let the juices be a part of the final pot.
• Transfer meat to a large enough stew pot and toss in all the other ingredients.
• Add water to obtain the thickness of the chili that you desire. No more than four or else you'll have soup instead of chili.
• Serve.
• You can add the shredded cheese of your choice (pictured above is cheddar).
• You can also add any hot sauce to your preference (The Boss favors sriracha).

The yield is enough for two grown adults to eat on for over a week.

So that's it, gang. A nice pot of chili, ready for football games, late night television mysteries, or sharing with neighbors around a fire pit in the backyard.

Until Next Time...
If you want to take the quick approach to learning how to make Wendy's Chili at home, here's a short video of everything you need to know.

Chilily Yours,
Michael