Menu Monday - Best Ever Chili

Now that I am working on  blogging more regularly, I am bringing back some segments that I have done in the past.  Since I have been married and cooking more regularly, I have posted a couple pictures of our dinners on facebook.  Afterwards, everyone was asking for recipes and I told them to check the blog for Menu Monday.  So, without further ado, MENU MONDAY!

I have been dying for some chili ever since I went to Peachtree City to see my brother and his family and we went to a Chili Cookoff.  I sampled this one chili that was just amazing!  It was spicy, but not so much that your mouth burned.  It was just right!  I have been thinking about it ever since then.  I told Thomas that we were having some chili the weekend that I came back.  Now, the sweet couple who made this delicious chili showed me their recipe when I told them how awesome it was.  I jokingly asked to see it, and they showed me a laminated copy that they made it from.  It was obvious I would never remember it because it was one of those things where her husband had tweeked it for years and I would never remember all the random things he threw in there.  It lead me to the internet to search for a similar recipe though.  I found this one on allrecipes.com and tweeked it as I have written here.  The original recipe looked like it would be way too spicy, so I basically just tweeked it to make it more mild.  It still was spicy to be sure, but it was tolerable for anyone who likes a little bit of spicy.  It was like that chili at the cookoff that had spice without making your mouth burn.  My FIL, SIL, mom, her boyfriend, Nanny, and Thomas and I all ate some of it and we all loved it!  It is my go to recipe for chili now! 

Best Ever Chili
serves approximately 8

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (we like to use 97/3)
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 3 (15 ounce) cans Bush's chili beans in mild sauce
• 2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 4 cubes beef bouillon
• 1/2 cup beer
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano (ommitted this time because we didn't have any and I forgot it at the store)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon white sugar

Directions

1. Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Crumble the ground chuck and sausage into the hot pan, and cook until evenly browned. Drain off excess grease.
2. Pour in the chili beans, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Add the onion, green and red bell peppers, jalepeno peppers, bouillon, and beer. Season with chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, oregano, cumin, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, and sugar. Stir to blend, then cover and simmer over low heat for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  You can also make it in a crockpot if you prefer.  Just brown your meat on the stovetop, and then add everything to the crockpot and let it simmer on low for 2 hours or longer.  The longer it simmers, the better!  
3. To serve, ladle into bowls, and top with Fritos or oyster crackers, sour cream, and shredded Cheddar cheese.

I was way too excited for dinner to take a picture of this one, but believe me it is G-O-O-D!  I am so excited to eat my leftovers for lunch!  Happy Monday