A couple months ago, I showed you my homemade haybox (thermal) cooker. As with all things, I've had to make a few tweaks to my habits, but otherwise, I'm finding it quite useful. Especially, on days when I won't be in the house to keep my eye on something. In this post, I'll show you how I used it to make chili. Chili was kinda easy because all the ingredients were cooked before it went into the cooker. But the haybox worked perfectly for that long slow simmer that melds the flavors in chili and makes it so tasty. Here's the process start to finish!
Ingredients:- 1/2 pound ground beef
- small onion, chopped
- half of a med. bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 1 qt. canned tomatoes
- 1 qt canned chili beans
- 1 cup bone broth
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
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| Brown the ground beef and chopped veggies in a cast iron skillet. |
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| In a saucepan, mix and heat tomatoes, broth, beans, and seasoning to a simmer. |
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| Add cooked meat and veggies. Simmer for 10 minutes. |
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| Place in haybox cooker and cover to keep warm. (Two 2-inch pieces of foam board go on top of the pot lid.) |
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| Let sit for 2 hours. No peeking! |
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| Remove from haybox and serve. |
The haybox kept it mouth-burning hot. It was really good. We got two meals out of it with enough left over for Fiesta Cornbread.
I have to admit that we rarely eat chili. Having lived in Texas for a number of years, we've come to equate the concept of chili with fire-breathing hot! Chili cook-offs are a crowd-pleaser in Texas, with each entrant trying to out-hot the others! Those of us who prefer mild heat are simply out of luck. My other turn-off for chili has been my growing-up memories of chili mac being a staple on the school lunchroom menu. It wasn't spicy, but the combination of chili and macaroni wasn't appealing, either.
This recipe has mild heat, although obviously, that can be adjusted. For the topping, we used corn chips. We both agreed it should have a more regular spot on our winter menus. For variety, we can eat it with cornbread, or topped with tortilla chips and grated cheese.
How about you? Spicy or not? Favorite recipe? Favorite toppings?
More on Haybox Cooking: Chili © Jan. 2021
