It was 14 degrees on Wednesday morning when Sam left for work, and the baseboard heater under the living room window had been running more or less since dawn. I had a full day of calls ahead and a strong feeling that nobody in this apartment would want to cook at six o'clock. So at 8:30, before my first meeting, I started a pot of chili.
This is the chili we make all winter. It's sized for two people to eat dinner and then have two more meals out of it, which is the point. Cooking for two often means awkward half-recipes; this one is deliberately a little too big.
Why a slow cooker earns its spot
We don't have room for many appliances. The slow cooker lives on top of the fridge and comes down from November to March. It's earned that spot for a few reasons:
- It runs while I work. Ten minutes of prep before my first meeting, dinner ready at six.
- It's gentle on the electric bill. In an all-electric apartment I notice anything that uses a lot of power for a long time. A slow cooker on low draws far less than our oven does, and we're already paying a lot for heat in January.
- It makes the apartment smell like someone has their life together.
Ingredients (2 dinners for two, plus 2 lunches)
- 1 lb ground beef, about $5.50 (or ground turkey)
- 1 large onion, diced, $0.60
- 1 bell pepper, diced, $1.00
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, $0.25
- 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained, $1.10
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, $1.10
- 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes, $2.00
- 2 tbsp tomato paste, $0.30
- 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano (pantry, about $0.50)
- 1 cup water or broth, about $0.30
- Salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp vinegar or lime juice to finish
Total: about $12.65 for six servings, or a bit over $2 a bowl. Toppings extra.
Steps
- Brown the meat. In a skillet over medium-high, cook the beef with a pinch of salt until browned, breaking it up. Drain most of the fat.
- Soften the vegetables. Add the onion and pepper to the same skillet and cook 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste and all the spices and cook 1 minute more, until it smells toasty.
- Load the slow cooker. Scrape everything in. Add both cans of beans, the crushed tomatoes, the water and the sugar. Stir well.
- Cook. Cover and cook on low 7 to 8 hours or high 4 hours.
- Finish. Taste and add salt. Stir in the vinegar or lime right before serving; it wakes the whole pot up.
Notes
Can I skip browning?
You can dump everything in raw, and I have on rushed mornings. It's fine. Browning gives it more depth, and it's worth the extra pan when I have the time.
Toppings we keep around
Shredded cheddar, sour cream or plain yogurt, sliced green onion, and crushed tortilla chips from the bottom of the bag. Sam adds hot sauce to everything; I like a spoonful of pickled onions if we have any.
No slow cooker?
Simmer it in a heavy pot on the stove, partly covered, on low for about an hour, stirring now and then. Add a splash more water if it thickens too fast.
The leftovers plan
This is where the "on purpose" part comes in. We portion it out the night we make it, so nobody eats a third bowl standing at the stove at 10 p.m. (Sam).
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Night 1 | Chili bowls with toppings |
| Day 2 lunch | My lunch at my desk, over a baked potato from the microwave |
| Night 3 | Chili over rice or on a split hot dog bun, depending on our dignity that day |
| Freezer | One flat bag for a future night when we can't face cooking |
It keeps 4 days in the fridge and about 3 months in the freezer. Freeze it flat in a zip bag so it thaws in an hour in a bowl of water.
By the time Sam got home on Wednesday, the windows were black, the apartment was warm and steamy, and Olive had spent the afternoon sitting next to the slow cooker as though guarding it. We ate on the couch under a blanket, and there were still four servings left in the pot. That's the whole idea.
