Simple Beef Chili

I recently bought the cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks, because anyone who gets 100,000 hits per day on her food blog is clearly doing something right. If you haven’t seen her website click here Pioneer Woman. Basically her gig is that she makes relatively simple, comfort food and she shoots amazing photos of the cooking process and posts her recipes with lots of commentary mixed with gorgeous photos. I have to give it to her, her shots are good, and there are lots of them (sometimes too many, but no one asked me).

So, I made her “Simple, Perfect Chili,” and since I’ve never actually followed a recipe in my life without making a half dozen changes I thought I’d post “The Pioneer Woman Cooks Chili edited and adjusted by Inside the Kaganoff Kitchen.” My family loved the end result and I have to say, it was delicious and took almost no time to prep. So this is an easy, high fiber, low carb, high protein, low fat chili that tastes absolutely super. Thanks Pioneer Woman, I wouldn’t have gotten to my version without you.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks Chili

Adjusted by Rachel Kaganoff Stern

(serves six)

• 2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 pounds ground beef (I use organic grass fed ground beef )
• One 15-oz can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup Masa (Mexican corn flour)
• 1 cup water
• 1 can pinto beans (drained - pintos can be hard to drain, don't sweat it either way)
• 1 can kidney beans (drained)
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with chilies (don’t drain)

Brown the ground beef in a large pot with the garlic and the onions. Once it is browned drain off the excess fat. Add the tomato sauce and the spices and the salt. Stir together and cover. Reduce heat to medium/low for 30 mins. Add ½ cup water, stir well, reduce heat to low and cook an additional 30 minutes.

I measured out the spices and they were too lovely not to photograph.

After the beef has cooked for an hour, place the masa in a medium bowl and pour in the cup of water. Blend together with a fork or a whisk until it forms a smooth paste. Add the masa to the chili and mix well.

Add the beans and chopped tomatoes and cook on low for ten more minutes. Serve with whatever you like on chili. Sour cream, grated cheese, green onions or white onions all work. We like our chili over rice. You can also cool the chili and freeze it.