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Chili Cook-Off

It had been a long while since I made chili. With a $100 prize pot for three categories, I was down for the company turnout.  Silly me, to throw myself in the ranks with what may be some of the best chili concoctions ever- spicy, beefy, chicken...BACON! I may have my luck wavering in the wind with my chances dwindling. And so goes the saying "darn my luck". 

My original batch of chili (cooked for at least 24 hours) did not turn out to my satisfaction because I forgot to NOT use cheap beef. You know the huge black square container or the huge beef-chub tube? It's edible, but not contest-worthy. So, let's try this again. 

Thankfully, I had all my ingredients still on-hand but what about meat? I went to the freezer and voila! I had fajita meat and barbacoa! I used the fajita meat in this redo. I would've used the barbacoa as well, but the crock-pot wasn't big enough. The take-away is to always use quality meat in your soups and stews.

Living in Texas well over 20 years, guess what I learned? There are no beans in Texas chili! Whaa?! Yep, I'm in violation of having beans in my chili. <If you could see my face now...> You can look this up anywhere on the world wide web. Do I care? Nope. With that being said, my chili will forever have BEANS in them. "Beans' Chili... It's NOT a Texas thing".

Did you know there were no beans in chili?

Enjoy! 

INGREDIENTS:

MEATS
VEGETABLES
SPICES/ OTHER
fajita beef
regular pork sausage
spicy pork sausage
tomatoes: fresh, diced, sauce
bell peppers: red, orange, yellow
onion
chili powder
paprika
black pepper
cayenne pepper
pepper flakes
seasoned salt
garlic salt
garlic 
oregano
sage
black beans
pinto beans
butter

  
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