Name: One Pot Smoky Chorizo Chili
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 110 min
Ingredients: 1 lb chorizo (crumbled); 1/2 lb ground beef; 1 large carrot (diced); 4 cloves garlic (minced); 1 large onion (diced); 1 tsp smoked paprika; 1/2 tsp cumin; 1 tsp chipotle powder; 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes; 1 8oz can tomato sauce; 2 cups beef broth; 3 Tbsps bourbon; 1 15oz can pinto beans (drained and rinsed); 1 15oz can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

This one pot chili recipe is sure to warm you up as the weather gets colder this season. This delicious protein packed one pot chili is all about comfort food made easy. Especially when you top it with a spoonful of sour cream, and a big helping of cheddar cheese, definitely don’t forget the cheese. The garnishes are what make the dish! The best part of this one pot chili (which is obvious if you know me) is that it will only take one pot to make. Which mean (drum roll please) less cleaning!

As I continue Happy Stirring, and the endless cooking it entails, I’m slowly learning to enjoy cleaning up. Or at least I can enjoy a nice clean kitchen. But I’m sure as the temperatures start to drop lower and lower I’m going to want to spend less time clean dishes and more time wrapped up in blankets watching Christmas movies. Not kidding, I’ve been scanning the “Coming Soon” section of Netflix looking for anything even remotely Christmas related. My poor boyfriend, who will inevitably have to watch all these movies with me. Philip if you’re reading this, sorry not sorry!!

One Pot Chili = Easiest Clean Up

This one pot chili is sure to become a family favorite. When I made it the first time, my mom said, “You’re in charge of chili from now on.” Which is saying a lot because the woman makes a good chili. And the benefit of any chili is only one pot! So cleaning up after this dinner was a breeze, only a knife, cutting board, and the pot I used to cook this chili. I mean I also had to play the endless pantry puzzle with the spices. My mom has such a huge collection of spices that the spice cabinet is overflowing into TWO other cabinets. It’s incredible, but I count myself lucky that I always have the spices I need. And trying to play Tetris with the spices doesn’t take too long.

And I even cleaned up almost everything while the chili was cooking this time. Since this one pot chili cooks for a solid hour, and you only need to stir it once in a while, you have plenty of time to clean. And it doesn’t feel like you’re constantly standing over a hot stove. I think the next step in making this recipe even easier would be making it in the Instant Pot. So watch out, because I will be trying this, and SOON!

Philip, My Amazing Kitchen Co-Star

Okay everyone, we are officially at the part of the post in which I will turn this into a boyfriend appreciation blog. I know, I’ll get back to talking about this one pot chili shortly. I just wanted to give the man a little shout out for consistently having an open mind when it comes it my cooking, and my blog. Over the last few months, I’ve really gotten into the swing of producing content for the blog and my Instagram. And since I leave for work at 8AM and don’t get back until about 6:15PM Monday through Friday, my weekends have been endless cooking marathons. We wake up extra early on Saturday and we cook basically ALL DAY. Sundays are a little more lazy, and my time to work on writing and other back end blog things.

That may seem normal, I’m sure all the people that run food blogs have experience this as well. However, the weekends are also the only time I get to spend with Philip, as we live about 65 miles away from each other currently. So every Friday he has been coming to my parents house where I live, and allowing me to conduct endless food experiments on him. This one pot chili was one of them. (One of the better ones I may add.) He even tried my pumpkin bars that I made, and he doesn’t even like pumpkin!

Back To Chili Now, I Promise

Like my Creamy Leek and White Bean soup, this is a recipe I’m extremely proud of. We experimented with it a few times, and a couple weekends ago we finally got it right. I mean, we ended up eating at like 10PM that night (I know that’s bad, don’t come for me) but that wasn’t because the recipe was complicated or anything. It was simply because after working all week, and then grocery shopping at 6PM Friday night, we were TIRED. But that’s how it has to be, I plan the weekend, and the week and all the experiments I need, and we grocery shop on Friday night after I get out of work. That way I have fresh ingredients to work with.

It doesn’t help that on that particular night I also forgot my own recipe. So we had the Chorizo freshly bought and ready to cook, but the ground beef was still in the freezer. Totally 100% frozen solid. So yeah that took a while, and we ended up sitting around waiting for a bit. But thankfully, we had a trick up our sleeves. Which is, if you want something to defrost fast, stick it in a bowl of cold water. So that’s what we did, and it really only delayed us about 30 minutes.

Worth The Wait

That being said, even though the prep and the actual cooking of this one pot chili took some time. We both turned to each out after we finally got to eat dinner and said, “This was worth the wait.” Philip even went back for seconds. And my mom, who had long since eaten her own dinner, went into the kitchen for her own bowl of chili. So when I say this is a good recipe, I have proof to back it up. And all the leftovers were gone in only a few days. We all loved this, and I hope you do too!

Let me know in the comment if you liked this recipe. And make sure to subscribe to the Happy Stirring emails, and follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any recipes or sneak peaks! I will continue to share what I’m learning, and easy to make recipes for everyone!