Tasty Tuesday: My Homemade Chili & Corn Bread

A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE RECIPE:
This last Saturday the weather was almost the perfect definition of fall. Cool breeze, leaves and trees dancing around you,  barley reached over 70 degrees here and I was L-O-V-ing it! Though I love the beach and would rather live near one my favorite season as always been fall and my favorite month is October!
Since the weather had finally gave us full swing fall and the scene was set I figured it would be a perfect night for one of our family favorites homemade chili and cornbread. If you personally know my family you know it is an almost impossible task to find a meal we ALL agree on.
This recipe is the one that my mom shared with me and I remember loving it as much as a kid. I did however take out one ingredient but if you make it my way or my moms your looking at 5 ingredients or less! My mom ALWAYS did her chili in the crock pot first thing in the morning as us girls ate breakfast. I USED to do it the same way (I personally prefer it that way) but one time several years back I FORGOT to start it that morning before leaving for work and opted to go with this version instead when I got home and dinner wasn't cooked and  I had some HUNGRY babies . I PRAYED to God I didn't fuck it up and it was eatable... well it was and Ant swore it was the best batch yet and ever since then my chili never saw my crock pot again... :(   Men...smh...

OKAY SO HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

HOMEMADE CHILI

Ingredients:

Hamburger Meat
Pinto Beans
Salsa
Chili Seasoning Packet

THAT'S IT! 

My mom's recipe she used kidney beans also but I omitted them when Dakota and Alora were toddlers so I could get them to eat the chili and it just didn't grow up with them I guess.

For our family of 5; I use:
about 2 pounds or so of the hamburger meat
between 3/4 to a full jar of salsa, I buy the store name generic Mild Chunky salsa, but you can use whatever brand or heat you like bit I would REALLY reccomend you stick with the chunky consistency
one 15 ounce can of the pinto beans, again this is usually the store brand generic can unless a name brand has it cheaper
I usually use one of the McCormicks Original Chili Seasoning packets but the dumb ass walmart here is ALWAYS sold out of it. So I have settled with having to use the mild.

If you decide you want to add the kidney beans you can choose either light or dark red or even both. I still just use one can of them.

This recipe is really flexable and you can add as little or as much of each ingredient as you wish!

HERE IS WHAT YOU DO:

You of course will want to brown your hamburger meat and the drain it well.

Once the meat is fully cooked,
add your can of pinto beans. I drain about half of the juice out; but that is just personal preference.
Then I dumb in about 3/4 of the jar of salsa into the mix
Then I add the seasoning packed.
I some times add the rest of the salsola or a very small amount of water depending how thick it is looking
Once they are all in the pot I mix everything real well and I crank the heat up and let it hang out for a bit. Be sure  to check on it from time to time though. 

While browning the hamburger meat I take the time to preheat my oven and get the corn bread ready to be placed in the oven. I personally use the classic Jiffy Mix and add a little sugar to make it just a little bit sweeter to off set any spice from the chili.

I usually keep my pot of chili on low to medium heat for the length of time it takes the corn bread to bake so I would say between 20 and 25 minutes or so.Once the corn bread is done your chili will be as well. 

Serve your chili and top it as you please:

Dakota, Alora and I are all about the sour cream and cheese  combo with ours.

Aaliyah will ONLY eat hers with "sprinkle" cheese aka parmesan cheese

and as for Ant it's the classic plain with saltine crackers...

The posiblities are endless with this recipe! 

How do you eat your chili?