Love this chili weather

To me there are two staples of fall – pumpkin and chili. And so I’m a little ashamed to admit that we are 30 days into autumn and I just made my first pot of chili. But better late than never, I suppose. It got down into the 40’s last night and so we awoke to a cold house (we hadn’t turned on the heater yet this season) and it just got me thinking that I needed to make some chili.  So I did.  My (old) go-to chili recipe is really good, but really basic, and so I decided I’d take today’s chili to another level. A couple of years ago my work put together a recipe book and we had a couple of different chili submissions. I decided to incorporate some of those flavors that were so great (red wine, green pepper, green chilies, cumin) into my basic (ground beef, tomatoes, kidney beans and chili powder) and wouldn’t you know that this chili blew my old recipe out of the water.  So I now have a new go-to and here it is…

Chili

1 1/3 lb ground beef
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 4-oz can diced green chilies
1 cup red wine
2 26-oz boxes of diced tomatoes (undrained)
3 14.5-oz cans kidney beans (undrained)
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper

1.) In a large soup pot or dutch oven, brown ground beef. Add onion, garlic and green pepper and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add green chilies and red wine. Simmer for about 5 more minutes.
2.) Add tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, paprika and sugar. Stir well and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
3.) Top with sour cream, cheese or saltines and enjoy!

As you may notice, I have a slight sour cream obsession. It’s probably prudent to reduce your sour cream portion by about half of this. I just can’t help myself.