Wanda’s Chili

One of the first recipes my brother and I made living away from home together was our mom's chili, to everyone else: Wanda's chili. It warmed us up when we missed a little of home.

Now this chili is a staple not just in our homes with our families, but a few cousins and friends have asked for the recipe and "secret ingredient" along the way. The great secrets are now laid bare for everyone else! (With my mother's permission, I was not about to poke Mama Bear.)

As you can see, the ingredients are pretty basic. Just one that might raise an eyebrow: refried beans? This can of beans literally melts into and melds the whole dish together and is what gives the cooked-all-day mouthfeel. Someone else did the all-day part and now you can literally just dump it in! (Sorry-not-sorry, the congealed can-shaped mass plopping into the pot cracks me up every time, so I had to include a photo even though it's not inherently appealing!).

As with most stew-type dishes, this lends itself well to cleaning the fridge out of produce about to go bad or maybe you just forgot an ingredient and think "I wonder if this will work?" The answer is probably Yes. Forgotten carrot? Throw it in. Half a zucchini? Dice that sucker and throw it in. You get the picture. I regularly change up the types of beans and peppers. Most recently, I made it with a few habaneros and a cubano pepper leftover from other meal planning; I also replaced the kidney beans with lentils as we already had lentils and black beans on hand. Still delicious, still Mom's.

1. Heat up a heavy-bottomed stockpot to medium heat and brown the sausage. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and brown the beef. Dice the onions while the meats are browning.

2. Add the diced onions, combine meats back in the pot and stir occasionally scraping the bottom until the onion is translucent. If you used a lean sausage or beef, you may want to add a teaspoon or two of your favorite cooking oil to help the onion cook. Dice the bell pepper while the onion is cooking and add along with the minced garlic. Add one teaspoon of salt.

3. While the pepper softens open all the cans. Once the bell pepper is soft, add all cans, Rotel first and turn the heat to low while scraping the bottom of the pot. Add all three types of beans.

4. Add the spices and simmer for about 15 min occasionally stirring. Taste and adjust with more cayenne or salt to your taste. Simmer additional 10 minutes up to an hour on very low heat until serving.

5. I love a good bowl of chili topped with some cheese and green onions, but the possibilities are endless for both topping the chili and using the chili itself as a condiment. Chili fries, chili baked potato, chili burger, chili dog, chili "bomb" pizza (to be continued).

Thanks, Mom.