Pellet Smoker Cooking: My Good Quick Chili

Nov 23 2014

Over 35 plus years cooking I have fixed a lot of pots of chili, using a lot of different recipes and eaten a lot of different chili. I am from the North so my chili has to have beans in it. I prefer pinto beans over the more popular kidney beans and to me canned are just as good as using dried and less work. My favorite brand of beans are Bush’s.

For meat I have used ground chuck, ground round, a mix of ground beef and sausage, sirloin and round steak and smoked pork. My favorite is to use ground round 90-10 mix and leave the fat in for a better taste.

I have made my own tomato and chili sauce for good chili but that is a lot of work preparing. This recipe is easy to make up and to me about the best tasting chili I have made. I call it quick but it still takes about 4 hours; one hour to cook the meat and get it all together and 3 hours to simmer. I think any chili needs to simmer at least 3 hours to meld all the flavors. I have to keep my chili on the mild side for the wife otherwise I would have to eat the whole pot! I usually add some hot sauce to mine at the table.

It was on the mild side today, shirt sleeve weather, not really chili weather but it still tasted good. While my chili was simmering I sat out enjoying the weather and some beer. I swept up some leaves from my patio and picked up my dogs poo.

You will note I only used a half bottle of beer in my chili; you always want to use half bottles in your recipes. ½, 1 ½ or 2 ½ so you always have a half bottle left for the cook!

I served up the chili with some shredded cheddar and sour cream for topping. My wife and I both like some buttered saltine crackers with our chili. She goes a little light on the butter compared to me! I had some of my Cajun crackers left to have with mine. It tasted great and my wife said some of my best chili!

Printable Chili Recipe

Ingredients