One of my family’s favorite meals when the weather turns cooler is beef stew. There is something very comforting about this hearty dish. I’ve tried different ways of making it and my favorite way, by far, is the one I make in my slow cooker. For some reason, cooking the stew slowly this ways seems to always ensure that the beef is fall apart tender. I love the idea of putting it all in the slow cooker in the morning and letting it cook all day long. By the time dinner arrives, it is cooked to perfection and my house smells wonderful.
Since making chili is a long process, I’ll make up huge batches of a time, and freeze the extras in 1 pint freezer containers. A one pint container is about the size of a 15-1/2 ounce can of canned chili which is a convenient side for use in recipes.
Reportedly, according to the ICS, there was a trail hand range cook, who would collect wild chiles and garlic along the cattle trail. Then at night he would cook it up with whatever meat was available and serve it to the rest of the cowhands. The « original » recipe may be tracked back to the early 19th century. This recipe contains only meat, onions, garlic, oregano and salt. And certainly no beans!
Initially I wondered how good it would be, as when I spooned out half of the can into my bowl it seemed to have a lot of grease at the top of the can. However, I stirred it well and heated it in my microwave, and the Nalley Big Chunk No Beans beef chili slow cooker did not taste at all greasy.
In most cases, you can just place raw food and liquid (water, wine, etc.) in the slow cooked chili. In a few cases, the liquid has to be pre-heated. When this is done, all you have to do is put on the lit, and either switch on the cooker, or pre-program it to start later.
Recipes for these cookers must be adjusted to compensate for the nature of the cooking. Often water must be decreased. Most (probably all) come with recipe booklets. Many cookbooks with slow cooker chili are available and there are numerous recipes on the Web. A small number of cookbooks seek to make complete dishes in a slow cooker using fewer than five ingredients while others treat the slow cooker as a serious piece of culinary equipment capable of producing gourmet meals. With some experience, timings and recipe adjustments can be successfully made for many recipes not originally intended for these cookers. The long, moist nature of the cooking method allows for lower quality cuts to be used.
Although the beans were a tad salty, they had a nice flavor to them, but the rice was average. For some reason many restaurants have a hard timing producing flavorful rice. The tamale pie, which was basically red chili over pork tamales, was also very tasty. I thought the green chili stew could have had a little more spice to it.
To freeze chili con carne emeril, transfer the chili to a freezer container leaving an inch of head space. Let cool completely, then seal, label and freeze for up to 12 months.