Cooking No. 14: Sarah's Lucky Strike Chili

What is this, you ask?

Let me tell you (just in case my photography does not make it obvious ;). This is the most delicious chili you will ever eat. And I made it. Which means I should run out this instant and buy a lotto ticket because this is never going to happen again. Lightning has struck because my chili, as a rule, is bland, soupy, and terrible. I’m not sure what went wrong with this batch.

It came about innocently enough. The grocery budget is shot-to-bits at the moment, so I’m trying to use up everything in the house. I ripped this recipe for slow-cooker beef chili out of Everyday Food ages ago and, lo and behold, actually had a pound of Angus stew meat hanging around in the freezer. (Much to Drew’s chagrin, we don’t eat a whole lot of red meat. I tell him chicken’s healthier, but really it’s just cheaper. ;) Per the norm, I didn’t have all the ingredients in the recipe, but I improvised and somehow created a keeper. They’ll be no going back to ground beef chili after this!

Sarah’s Lucky Strike Chili (Yes, I renamed it. Because I am just that proud. ;)

adapted from Everyday Food's Slow-Cooker Beef and Black-Bean Chili

1# stew beef chunks, cut into ¾ chunks

12 oz.  tomato sauce (I just used half a jar of Ragu. Nothin’ fancy.)

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 Vidalia onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 T. chili powder (Don’t be scared! This much chili powder made me nervous too!)

2 t. salt

¼ t. pepper

1 c. water

1 c. Coke (Classic. No Diet or Zero, please. You’ll throw off my recipe. ;)

Put everything in a crock pot and mix together. Cook on high for six hours or low for eight hours. Viola! Martha suggests serving it with sour cream, but I just made some brown rice to ‘carb it up’ a bit. Amaaazing. I should not follow directions more often. ;)

Do you make chili? How do you do it?