I wound up actually making two pots of chili, sort of by accident. I bought a 4-quart crock pot a week or so earlier, and I thought that chili would be a good way to break it in. Unfortunately, one thing that I did find out is that those little bags of dried beans really plump up a whole lot when you soak them all day. A whole lot more than I expected. So, Friday evening, I divided up the beans (which were one lb. of red kidney beans and one lb. of navy beans) and put half in the crock pot with a can of tomato soup, a can of tomato paste, a clove of garlic, some fresh oregano, about a tablespoon of cumin, a chopped and seeded jalapeno, a chipotle chile and about a tablespoon of the adobo sauce those were packed in, and about a quarter pound of sauteed hot Italian sausage. Oh, plus I added a tablespoon or so of Thai chile sauce and about a quarter of a large red onion, finely diced. Plus enough water to make sure everything was covered. I put the crock pot on low and let it go overnight, stirring a couple of times through the evening.
I put the other half of the beans into a large pot along with a large can of tomato sauce, a clove of garlic, a chopped and seeded jalapeno, a chipotle chile and adobo sauce, a quarter of a large red onion, finely diced, and a quarter pound of sauteed hot Italian sausage. That pot also got enough addtional water to cover the beans, and then the whole pot was covered and put in the fridge until I got the other batch finished.
The following morning, I browned up about half a pound of sweet Italian sausage and two pounds of hamburger and added half of each to each of the two pots of beans. The beans in the crock pot had pretty much simmered down quite a ways, and I had to add a bit more water to keep them from drying up on the top and burning (or at least sticking to the pot) on the bottom. I left the beans in the crock on low all morning, and got them out at about noon. When I finally took out that first batch, they were pretty good. The beans themselves were still a little bit harder than I would have liked, but not bad. The flavor was pretty good, with a bit of heat up front, then mellowing into a nice meaty chili flavor.
After I had put the first batch in a storage container, I dumped the second batch into the crock pot and let them cook for the rest of the day and night. When I checked them Sunday morning, I noticed that they hadn’t developed as much “body” as the earlier batch, and I figured it was because I had not put any tomato paste in this later pot. So I added a can of tomato paste and let them simmer on low until sometime in the middle of the afternoon. A sample bowl, and the remainder went into the fridge. The flavor on that second batch was somewhat different than the first, with the heat being more toward the back of the bite, kind of sneaking up on you after the taste of the meat and beans. The beans themselves were that nice, creamy consistency, probably because of the extra night spent in the fridge.
My unofficial overall ratings: The recipe is very easy, although a bit long on the cooking time. Understandably so, since I used a slow cooker. If I had done them right, or in the right quantities, I would have only used one spoon, one pan (for browning the meat), a ladle, and the slow cooker, so not a whole lot of cleanup to be done. I could have used the slow cooker pot to soak the beans. The flavor of the dish varied, with the first group being probably 3 stars out of 5, the second being 4. Definitely something I’ll make again, though. Next time, less beans, a longer soak cycle, add the tomato paste up front, and no Thai chili sauce.
