Smoked Meat Chili for a Cold Day

Jan 22 2013

Nothing better for cold weather than some good chili. I have made a lot of chili over the years and never had a recipe I followed. I always told my wife this is the best batch I ever made; well sometimes it wasn’t! One batch I made awhile back she said now that was the best write down the recipe if you can. I remembered the recipe so I now have a basic recipe I follow.

I thought now if I can smoke the meat it should make a better chili. I made a few batches using a Weber stainless veggie grill pan that has slots in it. I was able to crumble it up in there and smoke it and that was good but you had to watch so you didn’t dry out the meat too much. Then I thought why not just smoke a chub. My butcher has ground chuck and ground pork in frozen one pound chubs and I think this works best. This is a good way to get some smoke flavor into any soups or stews.

I soaked some small red beans overnight. I smoked a one pound each of ground chuck and ground pork to use. I also had soaked some crackers overnight for smoking. The smoked Cajun crackers would taste good with the chili.

I got the chili on cooking and it simmered for four hours. It made for a tasty supper on a cold night. My wife had hers with buttered crackers. I put some rice in the bottom of a bowl, chili on top, then topped it with some shredded sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream, some sliced green onions over it. I had some Cajun crackers with mine. I thought it was great.

I think this is a pretty good basic chili recipe. I make mine fairly mild since my wife and Mother doesn’t like it too hot. I always save some to take to my 91 year old Mother. You can make as hot as you want by playing with the chili powders, peppers or adding more hot sauce.

Printable chili recipe

Some ingredients

Beans soaking

Crackers and meat ready for the smoker

After an hour and half of smoke

Meat resting

Ground chuck on the left, pork on the right

Crumbled up

Meat sauteing with the onions and garlic

Chili powder and seasonings added

Chili simmering

My Bowl my Supper