Soup Week: Pop’s Chili

My mom’s dad, my Pop, is a crackerjack cook. The man can fry eggs and bacon, mix up savory guacamole, grill a great steak, roast a delicious brisket. His cooking style runs to tender, flavorful, spicy meat (and anything involving onions, which he’ll slice up and eat like apples). I begged him for his chili recipe last summer – and he shocked my Neno when he agreed to give it to me.

I pull this recipe out when the nights start hinting at a chill, and I make a pot of it regularly through the winter. It’s open to interpretation (namely, more or fewer beans, as you desire), but I think the main ingredients – ground beef, tomatoes, beans, spices and brown sugar – are pretty much spot on. And when you come home and lift the lid of the Crock-Pot to catch a whiff of this simmering inside? Heaven.

Pop’s Chili
2 lbs ground beef
1 small onion, diced (or some minced onion)
1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
4 heaping tsp brown sugar (Pop said, “My teaspoons are heaping!”)
4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
Big squirt of ketchup (optional)

Brown ground beef, onion and garlic in a skillet, while adding other ingredients (except ketchup) to Crock-Pot. Add browned beef mixture to Crock-Pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. Serve with crackers or crusty bread.

(We often substitute 1 can of black beans for the 2 cans of beans listed, and skip the ketchup. But I’m just telling you what Pop told me. He knows his chili.)