Slow Cooker Chili Con Carne

I'd like to share with you all my favorite chili recipe. It's perfect for those cold winter days (or anytime really), and it's ridiculously easy to make!

I have created this Instructable to meet the needs of people who prefer their chili with a milder taste, but for those of you that like it HOT... don't worry it can easily be adjusted to satisfy tastebuds of all kinds.  

This is a Chili Con Carne. There are NO beans, tomatoes, or onions in this chili... but if you must have them feel free to add them :-)

To prepare this meal you will need a crock pot, blender, and a grill (or some way to roast your peppers.. maybe in the oven). 
You will also need some beef, chili peppers, olive oil, salt, and cumin.

Ingredients: 

One beef shoulder 
A variety of chili peppers
One can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
Salt
Ground cumin

For a mild chili like this one, use a larger percentage of mild peppers, and only a few hot peppers. This recipe uses:
5 poblano peppers
4 jalapenos
3 red chili peppers
4 yellow peppers
4 anaheim peppers
4 serrano chilis
1 habanero

If you would like it spicier, take away a few of the poblano peppers and add more serrano peppers, and maybe another habanero. Or, keep the poblanos AND add more hot peppers! 

*In the images you will see more peppers and beef. This is because I doubled the recipe so that I would have some to freeze.

• Gather your peppers and pour a little olive oil over them.
• Place them on your grill and roast them until they are wrinkled. 
• Remove from grill and let them rest until they are cool enough to handle.
• After they have cooled, cut them open and remove the skin and seeds
• Place all the peppers (including your canned chipotles with the sauce) in your blender and blend until it becomes a sauce.

Don't worry too much about removing EVERY seed, and ALL of the skin.... Just remove as much as you can. 

Grab the beef shoulder and cut it up into small pieces, trimming off fat and connective tissue. I made mine about half an inch. You can make them bigger or smaller - just be sure to adjust your cooking time. The bigger the pieces the chunkier it will be. I have prepared this cutting the pieces into quarter inch chunks. It took on closer to a ground beef consistency, but it takes longer to cut all those tiny pieces of meat. It was delicious though! 

Alternatively, you can buy stew meat that is already cut for you. I like to buy the shoulder because I am in control of how much fat, and how much connective tissue goes into my chili. 
Also: you can use any type of beef you want to use. I like to use muscle when I am slow cooking beef. It has more flavor, and because you are slow cooking it, you don't need the fat to make it tender. 

• Add your beef to the crock pot and season it with about a tablespoon or two of ground cumin and a tablespoon of salt.
• Pour your chili sauce over the beef and give it a good stir.
• Put the lid on your crock pot.
• Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I set mine for 8 hours, but it was done in 6).

Serve yourself a nice big bowl of chili & enjoy!