Directions: |
Directions:First, chop up the chilis, an onion, a few mushrooms, a carrot or two, and any other veggies you want. While you're chopping, turn medium heat onto a big-enough pot or pan (pan is better, but you need a big one to prevent overflow) and pour a tablespoon or two of oil onto the pot. Make sure there's enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
When the oil is hot, throw some chili powder and the chopped chili pieces into the pan. I usually use about two tablespoons, I'd say, although it's really just eyeballed. If the powder absorbs all the oil (which it probably will), toss more oil in. After the powder and the actual chilis have cooked for a few minutes, say 3-4, toss in the rest of the veggies. If you can't toss them, add more oil. You want them all to be coated in the powder and oil. After they've cooked for a bit, add half a tablespoon of chocolate powder, a few shakes of the spices.
Push all the veggies out from the very center of the pan, add more oil, and put whatever ground meat you're using down. I usually use ground turkey, but anything works. Stir it as it's cooking, to make sure you don't get any huge chunks of meat.
When the meat is cooked through, put the slow cooker on low. If you don't have a slow-cooker, you can just use a deep pot; but if you do that, make sure the heat is pretty low, otherwise you'll burn the bottom. Dump all the veggies and meat into the slow cooker. Open up the black beans, crushed tomatoes, and a dark, malty beer. Pour all the tomatoes and beans in, and about half the beer. Give everything a good stir, and then cover it all.
I usually give everything stir every half hour or so, but that's not really necessary in a slow cooker, just a good excuse to sample the wares. Keep it cooking for as long as you can, basically. You can't really overcook it. When I use the slow cooker, I start with it on hot, but I turn it down to low after a couple hours, and just keep it going. The longer you cook it, the better it will be. |
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