Crock pot keto chili 2 ways

Yes you heard me right, chili 2 ways! I made chili in the slow cooker twice and both were delicious. The first time was with carne picada and canned tomatoes, the second time was with ground beef and fresh tomatoes.

Keto chili with carne picada:

• Roughly 1.5 pounds carne picada
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic from the jar
• as many dried thai chiles that I could find
• 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, cumin, and a little bit of sweetener (I used coconut sugar)
• chicken bouillon cube
• fresh chopped jalapenos
• water

I don’t measure things when I cook, but I used a lot of salt. Salt has been unfairly vilified in my opinion, your body needs it, especially on keto. Okay off my soapbox now, but I put this in on high for about 4 hours and it was delicious, I put a picture on my instagram which you can get to by clicking here.

Keto chili with ground beef and fresh tomatoes:

• 2 pounds ground beef (80/20)
• 2 sliced yellow onions
• 4 jalapenos (i cut into rings)
• an entire bottle of crushed red pepper flakes (sorry not sorry)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic from the jar
• 3 midsize roughly chopped tomatoes (I think i used beefsteak)
• 1 sliced bell pepper (I chose orange)
• 5 roughly chopped garlic scapes (my farmer’s market find)
• 1 box of 50% less sodium beef broth (I loathe the low sodium ones)
• 1 beef bouillon cube (see parenthesis above)
• water
• chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, half of a packet of taco seasoning, half of a packet of hot chili seasoning (did you know these things have 5 carbs???), cumin, iodized salt, black pepper, and a partridge in a pear tree

Again, I don’t measure things but with any big soup item it desperately needed salt, so I’m guessing I added at least 1 tablespoon of salt to start and adjusted from there. That’s something watching cooking shows has taught me, is when you’re seasoning to taste, you’d rather undersalt at first than oversalt. So I just kept adding more salt until it tasted good, and I realize salt enhances depth of flavor. I used probably 1 tablespoon or more of each of the spices too. My theory was to add a bunch of fresh vegetables because I cooked this on low for about 6-8 hours. Hence why I roughly chopped a lot of things, they cooked down tremendously. The fresh tomatoes added a great earthy flavor and acidity, and I this was my first time working with garlic scapes and they were delicious.

These meals led to a lot of leftovers: chili dog wrap with low carb tortillas, chili and cheese omelets, and chili cheese crisps on low carb tortillas. I may cook chili every week if I can get 2 days worth of leftovers, or oooooh, maybe soup next time.

Some adjustments I would’ve made is on the carne picada I should’ve added more meat and more onion, but I really enjoyed the elevated beefy flavor it gave.

thanks all and happy weekend,

-nathan