Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Best Chili Recipes-You Can Lose Weight Eating This Low Calorie Chili Recipe!

I love chili! I can eat it anytime of the year and never be unhappy with it! It is fast, and cheap like some of the girls I dated in college but that is another story entirely! Many people think that chili is fattening because of the carbs associated with it in the form of beans. Let me be the first to tell you that no one person has ever gotten fat from eating beans unless they bury them in fat and grease. Period! Chili, if done properly whether it is beef, chicken, or even pork can be a low fat, high protein shot that tastes great! The secret is to get the flavor you want from the ingredients and not from the fat! Believe me, this is not hard to do. Here is a low fat, high protein chili with all the benefits of helping one to lose weight and stay healthy and not have all the fat that can be associated with day to day chili. This chili recipe will serve 6+/- people. In this recipe I will use beef, but you can substitute whatever kind of meat protein that you wish. Chicken, turkey, pork or even tofu if you want to make this a vegetarian style of chili. There are also tofu products that are texturized like tofu sausage that is really excellent for chili recipes. So here we go with the ingredients.

The ingredients you will need are:

1. 1 1/2-2Lbs of lean ground beef. It should be 10% or less if you can get it.
2. 4 garlic bulbs finely chopped.
3 tablespoons of either California or New Mexico chili powder.
1 dash of cayenne for added heat if you like. The thermogenics and metabolism boost from it is good too!
I tablespoon of cumin.
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika.
1 large can of fire roasted tomatoes diced up. These cans are either 26 to 28 oz.
2 15oz can of some kind of red bean either kidney or Louisiana red bean. Pinto beans will do in a pinch though.
1 large onion chopped fine. Either a brown or red onion the choice is yours.
1 1/2 of a cup or more depending on taste of canned diced chilie. The Hatch chilie variety is best in my opinion.
3 to 4 tablespoons of tomato paste.
1 or 2 dashes of worcestshire sauce.
1 one little dash of salt or sea salt or even season salt, or you can leave the salt out for your guests to add themselves. I know salt make you hold water, but is some cases you just have to have some to bring the flavors of your food out.

OK! Lets cook:

1. Get your hands on a large skillet of either the non stick, stainless steel or my favorite a cast iron skillet and take your very lean ground beef and brown it up. When the beef is browned and not burned, it is time for you to drain off the excess fat from the skillet. I usually put the beef in a bowl and then take another bowl and place it on top of the bowl with the beef and squeeze down and tip sideways over the sink and squeeze all that extra fat out of the beef. I leave what little grease is still in the pan and if there is too much I drain it out until only a slick remains.

2. Now it is time for you to put the beef back into your skillet and put the garlic, chili powder, and cumin in for you to mix together on a low medium heat. When the total ingredients in the skillet are hot and simmering as you can tell from the little bubbles on the sides of the skillet it will be time for you to add y our tomatoes, onions, chilies, beans, and tomatoes to the recipes and stir them together and let them blend. It is good to let this mixture cook for 2 to 4 hours on low simmer and you should check it every now and again with your spoon to see if you want to add anything to this recipe. About ten minutes before the dish is done add your worcestshire sauce, smoked paprika and salt. Keep on low for another thirty minutes and then turn the heat off and let the flavors marry to each other. When your guests arrive it is chow time!

Note: If you feel that this chili recipe comes out too loose and your want to maintain it's low calorie status, then you can thicken it up by adding 4 tablespoons of arrow root to 3 to 4 tablespoons of water. Mix these two ingredients together and then pour into your chili mixture and stir and this will thicken it up without any added calories or added carbs.