Slow Cooker Series: Chili, A Cheap and Healthy Alternative

As I have mentioned in several of my posts, it is winter once again and the cool weather is a perfect time to dust off those soup, stews and chili recipes. While I love my 'Texas Style' chili recipe (see December 2011 post). Sometimes there just never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done that you need to do. That is where slow cookers or 'crock pots' come to the rescue.

These simple devices make it easy for you to gather all your ingredients and throw them in to pot, turn it on and walk away returning after several hours to a hot cooked meal. Well...not exactly, but they do make your life easier when it comes to cooking certain types of dishes. Obviously some of main advantages of fresh home cooked meals is that 1) they help rescue the food budget because it is way cheaper to eat at home than eating out, 2) you have complete control of what goes into the pot, and 3) you can load up the cooker overnight or during the day before you go to work and have a fresh hot meal waiting for you when you get home. The following recipe makes about 10 to 12 eight ounce servings.

2lbs hamburger (weight before cooking)
3 1/2 cups water
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups pinto beans, dried
1/2 cup chili powder (4 tablespoons)
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or one jalapeno, minced, seeds removed

Sort though and remove any small rocks you may find. Yes, I said small rocks, as I generally find at least one in every bag of pinto beans I buy and you really do not want to break a tooth. Add the pinto beans to the crock and cover with 2 inches of water, then soak the dried beans overnight.

In the morning drain the water (pour it in your houseplants or garden, why waste it) and add the 3 1/2 cups of fresh water to the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients (except the raw hamburger)  and set your slow cooker on high.

While the slow cooker is heating up, brown your hamburger meat. Now I take my browned (cooked) hamburger meat and place it in a metal strainer and rinse it in hot water to remove any unwanted fat. If you are using a lean hamburger meat you may not need to do this, but typically for spaghetti, soups and chili I buy the cheaper 73/27 hamburger meat (more on that later). Once you have rinsed the hamburger meat add it to your slow cooker and leave it on high for one hour.

The only decision left to make is to determine when you want your chili to be ready. If you want to be able to eat the chili within the next 4 to 5 hours then continue to cook it on high for another 3 or 4 hours. If however you are wanting to cook the chili over night, or you want it took cook while you are at the office or running errands, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 8 to 10 hours. If cooking overnight, you may also want to increase the amount of water from 3 1/2 to 4 cups as you will not be around to monitor the moisture content

Cost Benefit Ratio:

So lets look at the actual cost of our homemade chili versus that of three of the most popular commercially prepared chili's available on supermarket shelves here in Texas. I realize that in other parts of the country there may be different brands and prices may very, but the following prices are pertinent as of 11/2014 here in East Texas.

Hormel Chili Cook-off Series Texas Style $1.98 for 15oz can (0.13 cents per ounce)
Wolf Brand Chili, Texas Recipe No Beans $1.83 for 15oz can (0.12 cents per ounce)
Stag Chili with Beans $1.86 for 15oz can (0.12 cents per ounce)
Slow Cooker Chili $5.39 for 96 ounces (0.5 cents per ounce) A 50% Savings over store bought!


Breakdown of Slow Cooker Chili Cost:

Now the cost of your chili may vary, we typically buy hamburger in bulk or when it goes on sale at one of the Mexcian markets in Dallas/Ft. Worth Area (DFW) or Tyler as our local Walmart will price match. Looking at the sale ads and buying items when they are available at the best price like this can really cut your grocery bill signifigantly.

Hamburger $3.98 ($1.99 per pound), pinto beans 0.91 cents (0.7 cents per ounce), onion 0.20 cents (5lbs for $1.00), garlic 0.10 cents (approx), seasoning and spices 0.10 cents. Total price of about 5 cents per ounce (actually 5.6 cents per ounce) or 44 cents per serving. The reality of it is that this recipe probably has a higher meat to bean ratio than I would normally put in my chili. I usually use a ratio of 1lb or hamburger to 1 1/2  to 2 cups of beans which lowers the cost down to about 4 cents per ounce or 34 cents per serving.

Any way you look at it, making your own chili at home saves you 50% over commercially store bought chili's and the flavor as well as the nutritional value is greatly enhanced when you make your own chili. To validate the nutritional claim, let's look at the following ingredients list.

The Ingredients List:

So is making your own chili more healthy? In my opinion that is a definite yes! Just to emphasize my point, let's take a look at the ingredient list of the 'Hormel Chili Cook-off Series Texas Style' ingredients versus our homemade chili.

Hormel Texas Style: Water, Beef, Textured Vegetable Protein (Soy Flour, Caramel Color), Chili Powder (Chili Peppers, Flavoring), Corn Flour, Oatmeal, Concentrated Crushed Tomatoes, Contains 2% Or Less of Jalapeno Peppers (Contains Vinegar, Salt), Sugar, Flavoring, Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn, And Wheat Protein, Salt, Yeast Extract, Modified Cornstarch, Spices, Oleoresin of Paprika.

Slow Cooker Homemade: Beef, pinto beans, tomato sauce, onions, garlic, paprika, salt, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes and water.

Now I do not know about you, but if you are concerned about what you and your family eat, I definetely know whicih chili I would rather serve my loved ones. I am not saying that commercial chiili's are bad or that you should avoid them, I am simply stating that if you want non GMO ingredients, and wish to limit the extra stuff in pre-processsed foods that your family consumes, then making your own chili is far cheaper as well as being healthier for you and your loved ones.

I hope that you and your family will enjoy this recipe as much as mine does and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are not only saving money, but serving your family a far healthy meal that one out of the can.