trixie's yummy chili

I have made this chili so many times and I swear to you it's the best chili I have ever had. Yea, super humble pie, huh? ;) Anyway, this is not a traditional Texas chili in that it has beans and happy stuff like that.  This one isn't time consuming or difficult to make but somehow manages to have that nice complexity of spices that makes chili so much fun. I hope you enjoy it!

1 lb ground beef
onion, 1/2 - 3/4" dice
green pepper, 1/2 - 3/4" dice
evoo
5 cloves garlic, minced
1T+ cumin
2T+ chili powder (I love Penzey's Medium Hot)
1/2 - 1t cinnamon (again, Penzey's Vietnamese is sharp and zippy for this dish)
1T dried oregano
1 can cannellini beans, drained and well rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained and will rinsed
28oz can chopped tomatoes
small can niblets corn (or you can use 1c frozen corn too)
20-24oz tomato juice
3c beef stock or water (I highly recommend the beef stock for this...yum!)

Use a big ol soup pot for this recipe - it's got some volume to it, but if you start in a big enough pot, you'll only need to dirty up one pan. Ok so start by browning the beef, almost 100% cooked through. Drain the beef on paper toweling and set aside. Add a few tablespoons of evoo to the pan and over med-high heat, saute the onions and green peppers until they start to soften. After about 7-10 minutes when the onions are not quite translucent, add the garlic. You don't want a ton of oil in the pan here but just enough to keep things from drying out; add more if you need to. A little browning in the pan is just fine. Once the garlic smells nummy and the onions are soft you can move on. Now, if you have some nice brown goodies in the pan, I'd start by deglazing with just a bit of the stock or some wine - maybe 1/4c and scrape up the bits on the bottom (these ingredients are not in the list above but you can just wing it or skip it.) Then, once the stock is totally reduced and the onion mix is basically dry again, add the spices. Stir them constantly while you're doing this - you're looking for toasty spices, not burnt ones. After about a minute or so, go ahead and add the remainder of the ingredients. If your tomatoes are whole, chop them up in the pan as you go (or mangle them by hand, that works too).

Once all of this gets in the pan, throw a lid on it until you get a nice bubble working. Check the seasoning but don't get too carried away adding heat (spice heat, that is) just yet...taste for salt and call it good for now. Reduce the heat to simmer and check now and then to make sure you still have a slow bubble going on. This wants to cook for at least an hour but optimally 90 minutes. Recheck for salt and now you can gauge the spicy factor too. If you can get your hands on that nice medium spicy chili powder, you'll find this to be a good level of heat but not too zippy for us self-proclaimed spice wimps.

This is sooo good topped with a good white Irish cheddar (shredded), sour cream, crunched up tortilla chips, chopped red onion, etc. Also highly recommend this with trixie's cornbread too, of course!