My Neighbor Renee's Perfect Chili!

Liza at Food.com's Note:

There are a bajillion chili recipes on here, but this is my fave. My neighbor Renee, a Midwestern gal, made this for Halloween a few years ago and i fell in love. Didn't know I loved chili so much! Posted at the request of another great gal...ncmysteryshopper! Update 10/7: ncmysteryshopper had some difficulty finding some of these specialized pinto beans so she created a similar chili with the same flavors, but without the fancy beans. For those of you in a non-pinto friendly area, you can give her Sexy, Spicy Chili for the Gourmet Cowgirl - Wstrn North Carolina a try-looks yummy too!!

• Total Time: 3 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 16-20

Yield: 1.0 big batch

• 2 lbs ground beef or 2 lbs ground turkey
• 4 (11 ounce) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes and green chilies
• 2 (16 ounce) cans Pinto Beans and Chipotle Peppers in Zesty Santa Fe Sauce
• 2 (16 ounce) cans pinto beans and chili peppers onions and garlic in zesty tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½-2 yellow onions , diced
• 1 large green bell pepper
• 1 large yellow bell pepper
• 1 orange , testing
• 1 large orange bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper , to taste
• crushed red pepper flakes , to taste
• cayenne pepper , to taste
• chili powder , to taste
• 2 glasses red wine , 1 for you, 1 for a friend

Toppings

• chopped green onion
• shredded monterey jack cheese or cheddar cheese
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Brown meat in skillet and then meanwhile heat up a dutch oven.
2. In dutch oven, saute onion and peppers in olive oil til softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cans of tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add cans of beans to tomato mixture and when meat is done browning, add as well.
5. Add salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste.
6. Simmer 2 hours before serving.
7. This is great frozen in 4 serving portions to reheat later.
8. Yummy with cornbread!

Reviews

[Dria at Food.com]

Testing. Loooove this chili.

[Ginny Sue]

Great chili! I made a half-batch of this; using one yellow bell pepper and half of a green bell pepper. I had no trouble finding the canned ingredients in my market. I decided to not add any of the optional ingredients until the chili was finished cooking to see how spicy it was; turned out the heat was just right and I didn't need to add any of the optional heat. I did double the amount of wine listed-just a personal preference!

[Recipe Maven]

Since it's never too hot for chili at my house, this one sure tickled our fancy! My DH and I both had seconds. With cornbread on the side it was excellent!