Elements to Make a Great Slow Cooker Chili

I love slow cooker chili for a cool, rainy day. It can simmer in the slow-cooker all afternoon, making the house smell so yummy, and it totally takes the edge off the chill outside.

Slow cooker chili is a versatile and forgiving meal. Some people can become very opinionated about what makes a “good” chili. Unfortunately, that stigma can be intimidating enough some cooks won’t even make the attempt. That’s a shame because at its core, chili is really quite easy to prep. And, chili gets better all by itself as it simmers in your slow cooker. Besides, there are so many different styles of chili, you just shouldn’t avoid it.

There are beef and sausage chilis, poultry chilis, spicy or hot chilis, hearty chilis, Indian masala chilis, and even alternate chilis like vegetarian or alternative meat chilis.

I love making slow cooker chili on cool days, and while I have my go-to ingredients, I still often experiment depending upon what I have on hand. Sure, I can work on perfecting that competition recipe every time we get the slow cooker out, but it is fun to mix it up and experiment with different flavor combinations.

So, what are the basic elements of a fantastic chili? Here’s what you’ll need

Ingredients

I pound of sautéed ground meat. This can be ground beef, ground turkey, ground sausage, or even ground elk or ground venison. I include those last two here because we have a hunter friend who shares with us some of his fresh ground elk, which is very lean, and I love using it in chili!
3 cans (15 ounces each) of kidney beans, drained. You can also use black beans, or dry beans which have soaked in water overnight. If your chosen meat is ground turkey, then white cannellini beans work great and do not overpower the turkey. But the most traditional method for ground sausage or beef is the kidney bean.
32 ounces of tomato product. The best options are 2 cans of whole stewed tomatoes, or 1 jar of homemade canned puréed tomato, or one can/jar of each. But you could also use diluted tomato paste, tomato juice would work, or a jar of plain unseasoned tomato sauce would work in a pinch.
1/2 onion, minced or diced
Cumin – at least a teaspoon, and up to a tablespoon.
Your favorite chili powder blend – at least a teaspoon. A note here – if your chili powder has been on your shelf for a while, it will lose its potency – or its ‘hotness’. Toss it and buy a new one. If it’s all you have for today, adding more chili powder won’t increase the hotness. You may want to throw in some ground cayenne to spice it up if that’s how you like it.
Spices – Kick it up a notch – while the cumin and chili are the most important spices, if you want to, you can experiment with some things like garlic, turmeric, masala, unsweetened cocoa, chipotle, bacon, carrots, parsley, beer, or a dash of dry red wine. I even had chili at a competition once which had cinnamon as its ‘secret’ ingredient.
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Sauté the ground meat along with the onion until fully cooked.
Add all ingredients to your slow cooker.
Cook on high for between 2-5 hours, or on low for 4-7 hours. The longer you slow cook this dish, the more the flavors infuse.

(See, wasn’t that easy?!)