Chili (Edited) (Edited Again!)

This is one of our favorites. Naturally, we are Texan after all! It's easy and you can control the amount of heat very easily.

1 1/2 pound ground beef or turkey ****
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 or 2 can chili beans
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 chopped bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon chopped garlic
chili seasoning

Brown the meat with the onions and bell peppers. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients, chili seasoning last. The amount of chili seasoning is up to the individual, I'd suggest starting with about a tablespoon and then adding more as you see fit. The only way to tell when you have enough chili seasoning is to taste it. We use a lot, like about 1/2 cup but sometimes more, and that's only the amount I start with. You can leave out the garlic if you want, or use garlic salt or powder. You can also add salt and/or pepper. Bill usually tops his off with a lot of picante sauce (real Texans only use Pace!).

I usually let it simmer 5 - 10 minutes over a very low flame. Simmer time varies, depending on how much liquid I want in the chili.

This is a really good meal for cold weather, but we have it pretty much all year round. It's a Texas thing. It's good served with tortillas, crackers, nacho chips or whatever you happen to feel like. We also top it with shredded cheese.

Chili isn't chili unless it has beans in it. It's just spicy meat sauce otherwise. In Oklahoma, chili is apparently served without beans but see my first sentence for my opinion on that! Another way it's served in Oklahoma is over cooked pasta. It's called 3-Way Chili: chili, beans, pasta = 3. It's surprisingly good over pasta.

We usually use ground turkey, but Bill's requested that I make it with ground buffalo so I'll probably try that the next time.

****I tried it with ground buffalo. It was very good! But buffalo has more fat than turkey, so it will need to be drained longer.

2nd Edit: We made it a slightly different way, we added about 4 oz. of water and let it simmer a little longer. It was obviously more soupy than normal, but it was good.