colorado chili

This recipe is so good and so easy to play around with. I've made it 3 or 4 times now and every time I add something different. I found this recipe from my friend Katie, you can view her blog here, "Busy Mom's Cookbook", she has tons of fabulous recipes!

Here is the original recipe copied from her blog, I used 1 pound of ground turkey for a smaller batch. Enjoy!

Colorado Chili

This recipe is a combination of a few recipes I've tried. Deon really likes Boulder hot italian sausage and hates kidney beans so this is the chili recipe I came up with for him. If you don't like sausage just use 2lbs of ground beef or turkey. And of course, you can use dark red kidney beans instead of plain red beans. It also makes a TON of Chili and freezes very well. We ended up with about 5 meals for the two of us (very generous portions). We ate one and I froze 4 in gallon ziploc bags.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 lb hot italian sausage - We like Boulder Sausage. (Boulder sausage is a Colorado thing - don't kill yourself trying to find it if you don't live here, :P)

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped green sweet peppers

4 garlic cloves minced

2 (14 1/2 ounce)cans tomatoes , cut up (I used one plaincan and one can of rotel for extra kick)

2 (15 ounce)cans red beans , rinsed and drained

2 (8 ounce)cans tomato sauce

4-5 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon dried basil , crushed

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan cook meat, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat.

2. Stir in undrained tomatoes beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil, and pepper.

3. Bring to boil; reduce heat.

4. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Crockery-cooker directions: Cook meat, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic as above. Drain fat. In a 3-1/2- or 4-quart electric crockery cooker combine meat mixture, undrained tomatoes, beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and pepper. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours on high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours.