Crockpot Chili Recipe

My husband is the chili maker in our house but because I was off on Monday, it was cool enough to wear comfy sweat pants and we had ground beef that needed to be cooked, I decided to dust off the crock pot.  Chili topped with cheese and served with a slice of buttered bread is one of our favourite comfort meals but I can't eat spicy food and I like more veggies than just beans and onion.  So in short, I like my crockpot chili nice and thick and loaded with veggies... which is shocking because I generally prefer deep-fried something topped with cheese.  But I'll take it.

So here is my recipe for a tasty crockpot chili with lots of flavour but not too much kick, but you can tweak as necessary to spice it up!

This made four big servings.

Ingredients

1lb extra lean ground beef

1 can (28 oz) chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

2 cups cherry tomatoes from our garden, quartered (or 1 more can diced tomatoes)

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1 cup diced mushrooms

1 small onion, diced (I prefer to use walla walla but any sweet onion will do)

1 cup water

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

3 tbsp chili powder 

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp diced garlic

2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper 

Directions

1 | Chop, dice and quarter all your veggies.  

2 | Brown the ground beef.

3 | Throw the cooked ground beef and chopped veggies into the crockpot. I like to use crockpot liners because it makes clean up so much easier...

4 | Add in the rest of the ingredients listed above and give the mixture a good stir to get all the juices flowing together.  Set the crockpot on high for 4 hours (or on low for 6-8 hours, however it works for you).

5 | I always give it a good stir every hour or so... and if it's not as thick as you want it to be (chili needs to be thick for me to really enjoy it) mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water, and then pour into the chili.  Stir it in and leave the chili for at least another 15-20 minutes.

6 | Serve when hungry.  I like to top with a couple tablespoons of plain greek yogurt and shredded cheddar cheese.   

And there you have my tasty crockpot chili!
ENJOY!