Slow Cooker Beef Chili

If you've been following the posts, you might have noticed that I'm an avid fan of the pressure cooker.  Well, I recently inherited an old Crock Pot, and thought I would try out the slow cooker method for a change.  They're both very convenient tools - one lets you cook very quickly, and one lets you cook quite lazily.  However, even with the slow cooker's appeal of turning it on and leaving for the day, I had to do a lot of prep work to get the final product to come out to my liking.  You can't just throw everything in there raw and have it come out perfectly, after all.

So I made my standard chili recipe, which is an amalgam of different recipes loosely inspired by that of Dinosaur BBQ up in Syracuse, NY.  They have a cookbook I highly recommend, with tons of other good stuff.  I browned the meat, put everything in the slow cooker, and headed off to work.  And sure enough, when I came back at the end of the day, it was chili, and the house smelled fantastic.

Let me head a few of you off at the pass here - I recognize that putting beans in my chili makes it not officially 'competition ready' chili.  I further recognize that ingredients such as cinnamon and brown sugar may seem strange in a classical chili recipe.  But I also recognize that up where I am, this far away from Texas, I can call practically anything with beef, tomatoes, and chile peppers a bowl of chili, and nobody's going to hogtie and brand me.

It's chili!  Be excited.

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

From a variety of sources, assembled by me

• 2 tablespoons olive oil -- (up to 3 tbsp)
• 2 pounds boneless chuck or round -- cut in 1" cubes
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 3 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 dash crushed red pepper flakes
• Fresh chile peppers to taste (I used 2 serranos)
• 1 28 oz can tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped, or 28 ounces plum tomatoes, peeled
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 3 inch stick cinnamon, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile powder*
• 1½ tbsp brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1-2 cups cooked red kidney beans (optional)
• 2 tablespoons finely ground yellow cornmeal or tomato paste (optional)
• 1 cup tightly packed, minced fresh cilantro
• grated cheddar cheese, as a garnish (optional)
• sour cream, as a garnish (optional)
• finely chopped onions, as a garnish (optional)

*What is chile powder?  How is it different from chili powder?  Well, "chile" is Spanish for pepper (capsicum, not what you grind up and pass with salt) - think bell peppers and habaneros and such.  "Chile powder", therefore, refers to ground up chiles, nothing more.  "Chili powder", on the other hand, is a pre-mixed spice blend typically containing, among other things, cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin, and, strangely enough, chile powder.  To make chile powder, gather up your favorite dried chiles and put them in a coffee grinder.  I recommend pasilla, guajillo, and ancho peppers, all of which can be found at Latin markets.

Trim meat of excess fat.  If you're using fresh tomatoes like me, slice a small 'x' in the top of each one and plunge into boiling water for 60 seconds, then immediately into ice water.  Then just peel the skins off!

To peel a tomato, slice an 'x' into the bottom of a tomato and boil for 1 minute...

...then immediately plunge into ice water.  See how the skins fall off?

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet (preferably cast iron).  Over medium-high heat, brown the meat in 2-3 batches.  Remove to a platter and set aside.  Do NOT attempt to brown all of the meat at once; I have re-enacted this mistake for your benefit, and include a photo showing you exactly why you shouldn't.

This would be an appropriate amount of meat to brown at once

This is too much meat.  Do you see all of that liquid boiling under the meat?  Guess what - you're now steaming your meat, not searing it.  Not to mention that all of that delicious meaty goodness is escaping from the meat rather than being 'sealed in', a misnomer but still the easiest way to explain what you want.

Adding more oil if necessary, saute the garlic, onions, green pepper, and hot pepper (if desired) for 3 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the browned meat and aromatics to the slow cooker and add the tomatoes and beef broth, pouring some of the liquid first in the sauté skillet to deglaze and get all the juicy bits off the bottom if separate pan was used in first step.  Stir in the spices and salt.  Put the chili on low, and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serrano peppers before mincing.  I use a spoon to remove the seeds and membrane, which is where the heat is concentrated.  Did you know you can take the membrane out of a habanero and it's mild enough to eat with ice cream?

Chile powder.  It's just chiles - no other spices.  You're thinking of chili powder.  Don't mix those up.

Vegetables being sauteed before adding to the slow cooker.  This is mostly to lift the browned meat bits off of the pan.

Once everything's already been mostly cooked, go ahead and finish it in the slow cooker for another 6-8 hours.  This old guy behaved like a champion - perfectly tender in 6 hours on low.

Test the beef for doneness.  If it is not sufficiently tender, crank the heat to high and cook for another 30-45 minutes.  When done, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.  Stir in the kidney beans (if desired) and cilantro.  If the chili is too thin, gradually whisk in the cornmeal or tomato paste until thickened.

You can garnish this however you like, but I like cheddar cheese, cilantro, sour cream, and raw onions.

Slow-cooked chili, garnished simply with cheese and onions