One Pot Lazy Day Chili

Did you know that there are some people who put chili on noodles? Well, there are and the whole thing even has a name: Cincinnati style chili. I like it, but I don’t care for how thin Cincinnati style chili often is. So instead, I use this nice thick chili that’s pretty great by itself, but is just great on noodles. And y’all can duke it out Skyline versus Gold Star in the comments.

Man oh man do I love regional foods: knowing and loving regional foods immediately marks you as a weirdo to outsiders, but it also immediately connects you with another person from that region. Together, you can figuratively gallop into the sunset astride a golden steed, carrying a Hot Brown or, in this case, a big bowl full of chili and noodles.

Here’s what you need for my one pot lazy day chili:

• 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• One can tomato paste
• Four cans of beans (I prefer kidney and black), drained
• 4 bell peppers, cut into bite size pieces
• 2 Serrano peppers, minced
• If you’ve got them, throw in a tomatillo or two
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• One onion, diced
• Texturized vegetable protein, optional
• Olive oil (enough for heating onions in a skillet with)
• 2 teaspoons Chili spices (I get a mix from the co-op, and it’s got things like paprika and cumin and garlic powder and cayenne pepper and things like in it)
• Salt to taste

OK, so I will cook the onion on a skillet with oil until the onions smell sweet and look translucent. Then, I literally throw everything into one gigantic pot, mix it around a few times, and let that sucker go for 40 minutes, stirring every so often so that nothing gets stuck to the bottom. That’s it. If you want noodles, boil some water and get those going, too. If you don’t want noodles, watch an episode of Parks and Recreation or something instead of making noodles. That’s all there is to it!