Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne

Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne

There are certain meals that are best eaten at certain times and on certain occasions. This Chilli Con Carne has seen many an England footballing failure but more often an England Rugby success. It's a meal for sharing with friends and family. Big bowls and happy memories. This recipe serves two but it has doubled and tripled in order to feed whoever has come round.

The reason it feeds just two is that it is also a perfect Friday night meal. We don't do takeaways but by Friday evening quite frankly I've had enough of the week and need a takeaway meal that is easily made at home. I start by preparing this dish the night before in order to let all the flavours develop. If you're not that organized you can just make it up in the morning and put it straight into the slow cooker. Once Friday night comes and all the kids have been dispatched to bed all that is needed is to cook some rice. For an even easier accompaniment simply serve it with some crusty bread.

I found the original recipe in an OXO cookbook (hence the use of a stock cube). However, it wasn't for a slow cooker and involved lots of frying off before leaving it to cook on the hob. All this sounded very unnecessary and rather labour intensive. This takes a few minutes to prepare and then the slow cooker does all the work. Being an authentic recipe it also included kidney beans but I do use baked beans. I know some people will shudder at this but once a student and now a mother, there is always a tin of baked beans in my cupboard. If you want to go back and use kidney beans please do but you may need to add some more liquid to replace the bean juice.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 Onion, chopped

8oz (225g) Minced beef

1 Beef stock cube (to be crumbled in)

1tsp (5ml) Chilli powder

½ tsp (2.5ml) Ground coriander

½ tsp (2.5ml) Ground cumin

½ tsp (2.5ml) Dried oregano

¼ tsp (1.25ml) Garlic granules

400g tin Chopped tomatoes
400g tin Baked Beans

2tbsp (30ml) Tomato purée

Method

1. The night before you want to eat this meal place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until it is all combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. In the morning bring the bowl out of the fridge and set the the slow cooker to pre-heat on high for 10 minutes.

3. Put the chilli into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours and serve with rice or crusty bread.