silverthorne

*Coughs*

Okay, obviously it's that time of the year where I rediscover the word 'Manic'. Can you say 'manic', boys and girls? I knew you could!!!

*g*

Anyhow, I promised this for EB, but everyone can have a shot at it. Real simple chili dish.

Silverthorne's Tenderfoot Chili

What you need:

1 pound of ultra-lean ground beef (I use 97/3 if I can find it--never go higher in fat content than 93/7)
1 medium to large sized white onion
2 tablespoons of stick margarine
1 52 oz can of Ranch Style Beans
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
(Note that if you're worried about the extra junk in canned foods, you can always cook a fresh round of red kidney beans and slice your own tomatoes--remember though to leave enough 'gravy' with the beans so that you have a stew base for the chili. Also keep in mind that you will have to use more seasonings to make up for what the cans provide in the original recipe.)

Salt
Black pepper
Chili powder
Seasoned salt (Either Lawrys or Walmart's '5th Season' brands work nicely)
Seasoned meat tenderizer
Cayenne pepper

What you do

Chop the onion up--I usually like to do thin slices in 1/4 lengths--some people might like their onion chunks differently. Don't go too fine though, or they'll just cook into the chili and disappear.

Put the onion and butter in a large frying pan, set to browning on medium heat.

While you wait for that, combine the beans and tomatoes in a large pot. Add in salt, pepper, chili powder and cayenne pepper to taste--go a little stronger than you think you'll need--a lot of the spices will cook off in the meantime. By the same token, be VERY careful with the cayenne pepper--a little goes a very long way, and it only gets hotter as it cooks (and then sits in the left-overs later!). I usually use only a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of the stuff, and use the black pepper to 'hotten it up' more later if the spicy isn't strong enough.

Mix until everything is evenly distributed. Set aside.

Your onions should be halfway to being browned. Stir and check. Sprinkle a very light coat of the seasoned salt over them and stir again--they should now be very, very light orange.

Get the hamburger. Lightly spinkle on both sides of the 'cut' with the meat tenderizer while it's still in its store tray. If the tray has one of those little white butcher papers under the meat, remove it. While it's still in the tray, use a knife to slice it into little meat chunks--again, this is preference here--some people like literal chunks of meat in their chili, other people like to cut the meat up enough so that it's more like a meat sauce consistancy once it's in the chili. When you're done, the meat should be ready to go in the pot with the onions, and you can throw out the tray (meanwhile skipping a cleaning step! How cool is that?)

When the onions are brown around the edges, add the hamburger, stirring thoroughly so that both are mixed well. Continue to brown until all the meat has lost its pink color.

Add the contents of the frying pan to the pot--you can drain ahead of time or not--one of the reasons I use lean meat is so that I can still take advantage of the buttery flavor for the chili but not have to worry about grease from the meat.

Turn pot to medium or medium-high and put the lid on it. Let sit fifteen minutes until it starts to boil, then turn to low heat. Leave to simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally and checking the flavor. Add more of salt, pepper and chili powder as preferred.

At the end of two hours, turn off heat and enjoy!