9-14: Chili Con Carne

This recipe card gave me an excuse to cook up a big ol’ batch of 9-14: Chili Con Carne, not that I needed an excuse. I’ve made a few pots of chili in my day, but not one quite like this. My favorite episode of the Simpsons, entitled El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer), features a chili cook-off as a vital plot point. The infamous space coyote scene still cracks me up to this day. ?

With the peppers featured prominently on the front of the recipe card, Simply Delicious has pointed out the one major issue I had with this dish. WHO PUTS BELL PEPPER IN CHILI? ? Jamie and I enjoy a little spice in our chili. I’ve always wanted to try adding a pepper akin to the “Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango … grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.” ?


Good job, “Tips” section! Using canned beans was much easier than the preparation method shown on the card.


From the prominently featured bell peppers in the photo, I felt like I had to use bell peppers in this recipe. The other ingredients were ingredients I had lying around in the pantry.


To start things off, I diced the onions and sliced the peppers into strips. Then I tossed them in the pan with some melted butter and canola oil.


As the recipe suggested, I dumped the ground beef into the pan after the onions and peppers were soft and fragrant. Jamie cringed at the thought of adding the beef into the same pan, she would rather brown the beef in a separate pan to get a crusty, crumbly ground beef, like you would put in a taco. ?


When the beef was browned, I added the tomatoes and the chicken stock.


Next, I stirred in the spices and the garlic. The spice combination I used made this dish taste a lot like Sloppy Joes, and those are my favorite dish so I wasn’t too disappointed.


Because my beans were from a can and not cooked, I stirred them into the chili and covered the pan to cook for 20 minutes.


This pan is so large, the only way to cover it is to flip the pizza pan upside down and put it on top of the pan. This is the same pizza pan I used to transport 16-4: Blueberry Pie.


Served with a big dollop of sour cream and a tortilla chip, this chili was delicious. It was hardly spicy, it was crying out for more chili pepper. ? IN YOUR FACE, SPACE COYOTE!

(Editor’s note: Space coyote…? ?)

GRADE: B+