Cooking With Banshee: Becky Lee's Sweet Chili

As some of you know, my mother is an award-winning chili cook.  She usually wings it.  But, I am a rule-follower.  One weekend, my mother and I worked together to get a perfect chili recipe written down.  I have since made a few tweaks of my own.  This is the result.

This chili has a little kick, but it is a sweet chili.  It is good in a bowl.  But, this chili is perfect on cheese fries and nachos.  There are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, and this makes quite a big batch.  You need a very big crockpot or soup pot to contain this whole recipe.

Chili Ingredients:
2 15 oz cans white kidney beans
2 15 oz cans great northern beans
2 28 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel (I use the "hot" flavor but that isn't necessary)
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 tomato paste can full of water

1 cup sugar
2 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs chipotle chile powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs cumin
1 tsp dried basil
1 Tbs oregano (Mexican oregano is best, but I usually can't find it)


4 cloves minced garlic (3 Tbs if you use the minced kind in a jar)
3 diced onions
1/2 diced green pepper
3 jalapeños (stemmed, seeded and finely chopped)
1 1/2 lbs ground beef

Chili Instructions:
Combine all the wet ingredients in a crockpot.  (Again, you need a BIG one).  Mix them together.  Add all the dry ingredients.  Mix them in.  Add all the vegetables.  Mix them in, too.  Brown the ground beef in a skillet.  Add the ground beef, grease and all, to the crockpot.  Mix it all up.  Heat it all until it's piping hot.  Crockpots vary but this will likely take several hours.  Like most chili, this is actually better the second day.

A little variation:
Mom adds a can or two of vacuum packed sweet corn.  I agree that is tasty when you're serving the chili straight up in a bowl.  I think it's unnecessary if you are serving the chili on nachos or cheese fries. 01 09 10