My Goodness, I love chili!!!!

[The_Swedish_Chef]

It's cold. It's damp. It's greyer than London Fog.

But....I'm a happy girl, 'cause I just had a steamin' hot bowl of chili with cornbread/butter/& honey!

So, do YOU also love chili?????

Beans or not? Ground Beef? Chunks of Beef? Chicken? Veggie?

Do you like to add onions and cheese on top, after it's served? Or plain?

How HOT do you make your chili? Can it remove rust from car parts?

And what to go with it: Saltines? Cornbread? Something else?

Do you have just ONE favourite recipe or are you an Equal Opportunity Chili Lover?

I won a blue ribbon for my chili recipe at the Anoka County Fair in 1970. I've never changed one single ingredient in 41 years of chili making. I will eat other chili, but I will NEVER make any other chili. I'm faithful that way.

I've also never tried a white chili, which to my mind, is simply a chicken & bean stew, or soup, if it's more liquid.

When you make your chili, do you make enough to set aside? I make 24 cups of chili each time I make it. It cooks in a slow cooker for 12 hours, cools, and is then packed up. Rarely do we eat it the day it's made, 'cause it just improves with age.

So, share your love for chili, y'all!

[Felix4067]

I have two basic chili recipes, depending on if I have beef or venison. My venison chili is absolutely to die for, and has won chili cook-offs more than once.

I've had to adjust seasonings, however, since my mother can't have spicy. So now I cut back on what I put in and make up for it by dressing out my individual serving. If I know she's not eating it, I'd say it's about a 7 on the 1-10 "my mouth is on fire" scale. Beans are optional, depending on how much meat I have and what mood I'm in. Fairly often I'll scatter some cheese on top, but rarely onions (mostly because I never have any on-hand that aren't frozen).

I am incapable of making anything less than a vat of chili. I use my Dutch oven, which I believe is 10 quarts, and by the time I'm done it's full to within an inch of the top. Which leads to umpteen Ziploc containers in my freezer, ready to be reheated for later dinners (or, more often, taken to work for lunch).

White chili Iove, I'm just incapable of making it. A friend of mine makes a killer white chili with chicken and Great Northern beans. I've tried...I've failed.

[The_Swedish_Chef]

Nice to meet another lover of chili, Felix!

My chili might be a 2 or 3. I only use 1 teaspoon of chili flakes in it; any more than that and my entire Scottish clan can't eat it. Tears stream out of their eyes...no kidding!

When I'm out and in the mood for chili, I almost always have cheese bits and onions on top, because the chili is usually SO tame, it falls into the Boring Catagory. And no one has corn bread so I grab a basket of crackers and go to town.

[Donna]

I love chili too! I usually use a combination of stew meat and ground beef. I always add beans--black beans, kidney beans chili beans, pinto beans whatever I have on hand. I always top my chili with sour cream, onions, and cheese. I don't make it super hot but I put a bottle of hot sauce on the table for anyone that wants it. Usually serve it with cornbread. Yummo!

[racrgal]

Chili rules!!!!!! I love chili. Venison chili was my favorite but due to health issues I had to quit eating red meat. Now I make my chili with ground chicken or turkey. Same recipe, different meat. No one knows the difference because it's highly seasoned.

I don't top with onions but do love cheese on top. No crackers for me, thanks. FRITOS all the way. On the bottom, on the top, to dip in the chili. Anywhere is a good place for Fritos and chili.

How much to I make? LOTS! Freezing for a chilly, I don't want to cook, football day is perfect. I didn't know chili could be made in a small batch.

[The_Swedish_Chef]

I didn't know chili could be made in a small batch.

I want that quote on a t-shirt!!!!

[racrgal]

Go for it!!! That would be great.

There are only the two of us and I always end up with gallons of chili. Sweetie just laughs and reminds me what the beans are going to do for him.

[Dissie]

I love chili too! I like it hot and spicy,but not so hot it hurts. I love it with beans. LIght, and dark kidney beans, some pintos, oh my! I love to eat it with saltines. I am not a big cornbread eater. Growing up in MN, they like sweet cornbread, so thats how I eat my cornbread, and that doesn't work with chili for me. I adore any kind of chili and experiment when I make it, but I always seem to come back to my standard recipe. But all chili is good! Some is just BETTER!

[Chocolatl]

I like it Cincinnati style, over pasta, with plenty of onions and shredded cheese on top. Spicy but not too spicy--I like to have flavor, not just heat. Definitely venison if I can get it, but otherwise coarsely ground beef and/or chunks of beef diced fairly small. DH is usually the chef when we make it, so there are always gallons! We freeze the extra.

We saw a Cook's Country episode where the chili was thickened with a couple of spoonfuls of Jiffy cornbread mix. We tried it and it was wonderful, so we do that now.

[foxysnana]

I live in AZ, so our weather does not cooperate with making chili very often (even in winter it is warm here). When I make it, my 12 quart stock pot is usually pretty full. I never really use a recipe, I tend to put the same things in my chili every time. I use ground meat, chunks of meat, have used turkey, have made white chili, you name it. I prefer mine with saltines, and lots cheese on top. I love chili dogs, but only if those dogs are cooked over a fire or on a grill, otherwise I don't like hot dogs. If I do have hot dogs, I don't like buns, so I cut up the hot dogs and eat them in the chili. I prefer a bit of heat, but not to the point that it hurts, my BF can't handle the heat. I usually make it so he can eat it and toss a bit of hot sauce in my bowl. If I make it for others, I usually make it a bit hotter. When I make a huge pot of chili, I usually share with my guys at work, so I rarely freeze it.

It is finally cooling down a bit here in the dessert, and I have promised dinner to a couple of guys at work......so I guess chili will be on my menu soon