Published: Sep 30, 2025 by Isaac Johnson

Quick note on the banner image. I forgot to get a good selfie so that is me today with a GCP nano banana generated background. It’s the only AI generated image in this article.

Usually I post about tech. Not today. Today, I plan to share one of my favourite recipes…

Chili Recipe

I love Chili. I do. I love hot meaty chili and there are very few variations I dislike.

I’ve gotten into making it and over and over I need to look up the recipe and remember my tweaks.

Today, I hope to share my recipe for Chili so others can enjoy it

Ingredients

The first thing you’ll want to make sure you have on hand are some cans:

2 x 15oz cans of Black Beans
1 x 15oz can of Kidney beans (though you can sub in others - just want some variety here)
1 x Can of Corn (trust me, it goes well)
1 x can of Tomato stuff - I used diced, sometimes it’s just tomato sauce.

Then you need some stuff from the produce area of the market

3 lbs of lean meat (90/10 93/7) - now in the photos I was being cheap and got 80/20 because, well, i don’t know what i was thinking - but i did it. So there is a step below for < 90 meat for draining the extra fat if you did as I did
1 large onion - red, white, yellow - doesn’t matter (i usually go with white, but today I had a red one on hand)
5 garlic cloves (just get a hunk of garlic when there) - garlic powder is crap - just skip that
2 - 4 jalapenos* .. I went with 2 today because I had some fresh habanero peppers and it would be too much to over-do both
1 -2 bell peppers*
note on peppers - if you want the least amount of spice (and still have it taste good), use a couple of bell peppers and avoid the seeds - the seeds are where the heat lives. For me, I generally grab all the peppers I have handy and cut them up.. more on that below

Then there is stuff from the powders or whatever area:

dried oregano (1.5 teaspoon)
salt (2 teaspoon)
black pepper (1 teaspoon)
cumin powder (3 teaspoon )
Chili powder (3 tablespoon) - now here i take issue. if a thing is a powder, and it goes in your chili, then I would argue all that stuff above is chili powder by it’s virtue of being a powder, and going in my chili. but i digress

Step 1: get the meat going

Get the meat in the pan, on low to medium heat - don’t go beyond that.

Then chop up the Onion (i usually mix it between fine and rough) and add that in.

While you are doing the other steps, just check in on it, chop down the meat, then stir. I leave the lid on - though it does make the kitchen smell amazing. Our goal is to brown the meat and get the onions soft and stirred in.

Step 2: the crock pot stuff

My next step is to get the beans (both the black and kidney) and put them in a strainer, rinse them, and dump them in the crock pot.

The tomato can - whatever that is, just dump it in straight. Today I used diced tomatoes in juice.

Rinse the corn and dump that in.

Step 3: get the bowl of powders and garlic

I will take the cloves of garlic in a garlic press and squeeze them all in.

Usually I remember to do this last, but not today. if you do this step after the powders, then you don’t have to scrape the bowl later.

Next, start to add the powdered stuff. i move them from the right side of my table to the left with each one so i don’t forget. I get away with just having one tablespoon (Tbsp) and one teaspoon (Tsp) handy.

Step 4: cut up peppers and put them in

I usually cut any hot peppers, today I had fresh local habanero peppers, small so they really absorb.

I love heat, so i make sure to keep the seeds.

I cut the the Jalapenos in small 1 inch sections as shown below

Lastly, the bell peppers I like as longer strips.

I add them all to the crock pot when done

Step 5: IF you need to, strain the meat

When it’s browned, before you add the bowl of powdered stuff, strain it. Good we have cans handy.

If you got good 93/7 meat, this step can be skipped

Step 6: Add the powdered stuff

When the meat is browned, we add in this bowl and stir it about - we generally want it all coated

I let it sit for a minute or so, but you don’t really need to

Step 7: add the meat

Lastly, when it looks good, add the meat to the crock pot

Make sure to stir it in with the rest

Do the hokey pokey here, just stir, then come back in an hour or so and do it again.

You’ll want to give this at least 3 hours on high to really get stuck in. I’ve gone to 5 hours and it was super good. I think beyond 5 though it gets a bit too soft. So consider dropping to simmer at the 4 hour mark.

Lastly, just serve or put into Tupperware for later. If I remember, i tend to put a bit of a cheese stick on top so when I microwave it later, it has a nice melted cheese topping.

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this little departure from tech. It’s getting cooler in MN now and the time to have Chili on hand is here.

It is easy to freeze and thaw out later. I have the above prepared Chili as my lunch today at work.

If you want more recipes, let me know and I’ll come back and do another. I have a simple cornbread recipe in mind to do next.