Award-Winning Chili

There is a story behind this post. A long story. Full of reasons for which I am not bitter...right. This is my dad's chili recipe. It is the way chili should be made. It is not chili-soup. There, I said it. If you are looking for soup with a little bit of ground beef and a some chili powder, look elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, there are some chili-soups that are very good. But they are soup. Not chili. So remember, if you enter this chili in a contest, make sure it is not a chili-soup contest. And don't enter it in Hull. Unless you know a lot of people. The judges will probably love it. The people will probably be scared of it. Do yourself a favor and go farther east. The people of Sheldon like this chili. The people of Chicago like this chili. I hope you will love this chili.

Papa Dan's Chili, or Kelly's Kicken Chili (you may choose)
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp chili powder, divided
3lb ground beef
2lb coarse ground beef
1lb ground pork
4 cubanelle peppers, seeded (if you can't find this, I substitute an extra pablano and a jalepeno or two)
1 pablano pepper, seeded
4 medium onions
2 green peppers
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes with green chilis
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with jalepenos
1 28-oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 tsp dry mustard
1 1/2 tsp celery salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 tsp worchestershire sauce

Brown meat season with 2 Tbl chili powder and remove from pot with slotted spoon. Chop the peppers and onion and saute them in beef fat with another 2 Tbl chili powder. Add in garlic, cooking everything until softened. Add cans of tomatoes into the veggies. Add meat back to pot and add rest of seasonings, including the rest of the chili powder. Simmer until meat is tender and flavors blend. If it is not hot enough add hot sauce, if it is too hot add more ketchup and tomato paste and water.

*Notes: The originally recipe calls for 3 stalks of celery. I always forget to add that in. I also used a little bit of chipotle chili powder (1 1/2 Tbsp) in place of the regular chili powder. If you can, buy the chili powder in bags in the Mexican food aisle, it is much better than the kind in the spice jars.

Enjoy!