Quarantine Mexican Chili

Chili so good you won't want to leave your house! ;)

This post is obviously related to the COVID-19 that has plagued the entire world. (Roaring 20s really starting off great) The goal of this recipe is to help some of you who are digging through the leftovers at your local grocery stores trying to figure out what you can possibly make. I'm using one of my favorite recipes for chili because 1- it's absolutely delicious and 2- throughout all of this chaos, the ingredients seem to be relatively easy to find. This recipe is pretty damn close to my normal mexican chili but it is adjusted so that you can find ingredients easiest. So saddle up with some hand sanitizer and hit the grocery store so you can curl up and stay inside with this delicious bowl of chili! Plus it makes an ungodly amount so you can share with those your quarantining with- from 6ft away of course! Remember, social distancing doesn't mean throwing a chili party in your home with 20+ people...

Not responsible if you use up all of your rationed TP after eating this...

Serves a fuck ton (Or 4 people twice, or 8 people once, or 2 people way too many times)

Ingredients

• 16 oz of ground italian sausage (I used hot italian sausage because that was all the store had, and there was a lot! So def easy to get a hold of)

• 8-12 oz of ground turkey or beef (I used turkey because it was all publix had, I personally dislike turkey, but it ended up tasting fantastic and i could hardly tell the difference)

• 16 oz can of pinto beans

• 16 oz can of kidney beans

• 16 oz can of black beans

• 16 oz can of navy beans

• 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes

• 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (Any flavor combo works, whatever you can find will do!)

• 6 oz can of tomato paste (my grocery store didn't have this but I figure some might- I personally didn't use it but if you can find it def add it in!)

• 1 large white onion

• 1 large bell pepper

• 2 jalapeños (You can really use any pepper with a little kick to it if jalapeños are all picked over. Poblano or serrano peppers work fine too!)

• 3 cloves of garlic

• Half a bushel of cilantro

• 1 1/2 cups of chicken or beef stock or veggie stock (Snyis fine if options are limited!)

• salt and pepper to taste

• 2 tsp of cumin

• 2 tsp of cayenne

• 1 tsp of chili powder

• 1 tsp of coriander

For toppings

• Sour Cream

• Mexican blend cheese

• Avocado

• Tortilla chips

Directions

1. Wash ya damn hands

2. Add your ground meat to a large dry skillet and cook until brown.

3. Add salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, and coriander to meat and stir.

4. Take your cooked and seasoned meat and add to a large crock pot.

5. Open all your bean cans and strain through a colander to rinse off any canning sauce that we certainly don't want tainting this delicious recipe. Let the beans sit to adequately drain any remaining liquid.

6. Dice bell pepper, onion, garlic, cilantro, and jalapeñoes and add to chili. You can do seeds or no seeds depending on how spicy you want it!

7. Add all those beans with the meat in the crock pot.

8. Crush the whole tomatoes with your *clean** hands and add them along with the remaining tomato juice to the crock pot.

9. Add your diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and stock to crock pot and stir.

10. Let it cook on high for about an hour, then taste to see if you'd like to add any additional seasoning.

11. Cook on high for a total of 4 hours.

12. Add your toppings and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks for grocery shopping

No Crock Pot?

No problem! You can do this exact same recipe if you have a large pot or two! Just keep it on low and make sure you pay attention to it especially if you have a gas stove! If you do decide to make on a cook top instead of a crock pot, it is a good idea to sauté you peppers, onions, and garlic along with you meat to make sure everything gets cooked in there! I actually had purchased too much turkey and my crockpot is small so I actually cooked half of this chili in the crockpot and the other half on the stove.

As seen below how overflowing my crockpot was...

Beans:

When I actually made this I had used an enormous can of black beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans. If you can find either of the beans listed your doing fine, just two-three different types of beans is best. Just make sure you rinse them, especially if all you can find are beans that come with a pre made chili sauce.

Overall

I know I made a few coronavirus jokes here but in all seriousness, we need to be smart about this. I know shit is weird right now, but for those unaffected is important to social distance and self quarantine so that we don't lose millions of lives during this crisis. Many people- including myself will suffer from this virus financially as well, so the sooner we can knock this out the better.

If you aren't staying in to cook meals like this however, please order take out from local** and small restaurants that have been hit hard by this.

Cover your coughs, sneezes, self quarantine, ACTUALLY PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING, and wash. Ya. Damn. Hands.

*You can make this Vegan-Vegetarian too! Omit meat, add an extra can or two of beans of your choice, and choose vegetable stock!