Old John's Chili Con Carne

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 3 large bermuda onions, cut up coarsely (the larger the onions, the better)
• 3 large garlic cloves, sliced thin (more or less)
• 1 large garlic clove, diced (more or less)
• 3 lbs ground chuck
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 3 (52 ounce) cans dark red kidney beans, drained (reserve liquid)
• 1 (1 ounce) jar mc cormick's chili powder (mild)
• kosher salt (to taste)
• cumin (to taste)
• turmeric (to taste)
• paprika (mild, to taste)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (regular or dutch processed, you can substitute instant coffee powder, see note in description)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• tomato ketchup

Recipe

• 1 heat olive oil in frying pan add one onion, the ground chuck, the 3 sliced cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon each of cumin, paprika, tumeric and 1 tablespoon chili powder, saute until beef is browned and drain off the liquid/oil.
• 2 place drained beef and onion mixture into a large stock pot over medium heat. add the remaining onion, the diced clove of garlic, the drained kidney beans and the tomato sauce and stir well.
• 3 if the mixture is too thick, thin it with the reserved bean liquid or add another can of tomato sauce.
• 4 add the tomato paste, another tbsp each of the cumin, paprika and tumeric, 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and 2 to 4 tbsp of the chili powder. (sometimes, i'll use the entire jar) cook until the onion is tender, stirring occasionally and thinning as desired with the reserved bean liquid.
• 5 add enough tomato ketchup to correct for the acid balance (see note above).
• 6 serve with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream if desired.