Crockpot Chunky Chili

Mr. Mamie and I created our own chunky chili recipe today, and the house is smelling sooooooo good! It is based on my "standard" chili, which in turn is derived from GolfDad's "old" chili recipe (which he has modified a number of times over the years). Photo will be added later!

Anyway, here's what we came up with:

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, or 1/2 of a medium/large onion, chopped.
• 4 cloves garlic, minced.
• 1-1/2 pounds stew meat, cut into fairly small chunk-lets
• 6 oz. beef stock or broth
• 2 cans (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes (undrained)
• 8 oz. hot salsa
• 1 (4-oz) can diced green chilies (undrained)
• 1 can beans, rinsed and drained. You could use pinto, kidney, whatever... I am not a fan of kidney beans, so we used pinto. You can add a second can if you want your chili to be more beany.
• 1-1/2 T. chili powder
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1/2 t. paprika
• 1/4 t. dried basil
• 1/4 t. dried oregano
• 1/4 t. dried thyme
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/8 t. ground cayenne pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine beef stock, tomatoes, salsa, green chilies, beans, chili powder, cumin, paprika,  basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and cayenne pepper in Crockpot; stir well. Turn Crockpot on to low.
2. Saute onion and garlic in pan with olive oil until just softened.
3. Add stew meat to pan and cook with onion and garlic until lightly browned. 
4. Transfer stew meat/onions/garlic to Crockpot with other ingredients; stir well.
5. Cook until "done" - which varies greatly from Crockpot to Crockpot! We cooked ours for about 6 hours. Our "low" is pretty hot/fast though, so you may need more time.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)