Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb cubed top round
20 oz (canned) tomatoes with habaneros
15 oz (canned) fire-roasted tomatoes
30 oz canned dark red kidney beans, drained
1 teaspoon hot New Mexican style chili powder
1 teaspoon Ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup drained, sliced pickled jalapenos
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Briefly saute the beef, onions and garlic until the meat is lightly browned on all sides. Add to a 4 quart slow cooker. Stir in the remaining ingredients. (the amount of liquid in canned tomatoes can vary so if the mixture looks really dry add some stock or beer or plain canned tomato sauce to moisten) Cook on low 8-10 hrs. Stir prior to serving.

My thoughts:

I haven’t made chili in a surprisingly long time.Too long! I was trying to plan out the week’s menu while wandering the isles of the supermarket and came across a little packet of cut up meat “for stew”. Generally I only find cubed meat in very large quantities or I buy a roast and cut it up myself so honestly, I don’t often cook with chunks of beef. But the meat looked fresh and one pound was just the right size for me to make chili with so that’s what I did.

Normally I add a bunch of fresh peppers to chili but the ones I had at home turned out to be rotten so I subbed in the last bit of a jar of pickled jalapenos I’ve had forever. It was a surprisingly tasty addition! It added a bright, sharp flavor to the chili which can be a little tricky to engineer when using the slow cooker. Of course, since it was made in the slow cooker, the meat was amazingly tender and moist. Yummy and beyond the meat, comprised entirely of ingredients I always have on hand. Perfect for a weeknight meal.