Welcome into the kitchen at SoBros HQ – we’re takin’ some of our favorite things to make and sharing it with our most loyal readers (that’s you). Simple recipes, for easy, fulfilling dinners – that’s our aim with the SoBros Recipe Book.
Tis the season for chili recipes, and I’ve got a family recipe of my own to share. This was one of my father’s creations – it was something we were always eager to cook up whenever the weather started to cool off at the Stoney K. Ranch (SKR). And yes, my parents named their ranch after me. I always looked forward to Sundays when I’d hear the stock pot bubbling away on the stove while football played on the TV. I’m not sure why my dad called his chili “trail mix” – you certainly can’t put a bag of this in your backpack, and I’d imagine these ingredients are hard to come by after settling down on the trail to camp for the night. But, I wasn’t going to ask him – it didn’t matter. This stuff was good.
I developed my own twist on this recipe, cooking it in a Crockpot instead of on the stovetop. My father could be an impatient man. I remember him scorching many a dish on high heat because “cookin’ slow takes too long.” So, just know that it’s certainly possible to just throw all of this shit in a stock pot and cook it on the stove on high. But, I’m a fan of slow cooking, so that’s what I’m going to roll with. Let’s get to it.
SKR Trail Mix
What you’ll need:
- One pound ground beef
- One smoked sausage, sliced
- One pound of beef stew meat (optional)
- 2 cans kidney beans
- 1 can whole tomatoes
- 2 jalapenos sliced
- 1 carton of sliced white mushrooms (optional)
- One chili seasoning packet, heat to your liking (I recommend medium since you’re dropping fresh jalapenos in this bad boy)
How you do it:
- Open up a can of kidney beans and dump it in your Crockpot, juice and all
- Brown your ground beef, sausage, and beef stew meat (if you’re going to use beef stew meat – at times, it can be a bit much with the two other types of meat, so I’ll leave this one up to y’all)
- While your meat is browning, go on ahead and slice up your jalapenos and dump them into the Crockpot too.
- Drain the juice from the can of tomatoes into the Crockpot, then slice the tomatoes into smaller bite-sized pieces and add them to the Crockpot too.
- If you’re adding mushrooms, add ’em in here so they can catch all the drippings from the meat as they cook down. I love mushrooms instead of extra beans. They absorb flavor and have a wonderful texture. They’re a surprisingly good chili ingredient, though I always leave this one up to the chef’s discretion.
- Add the meat that you’ve browned
- Dump your 2nd can of kidney beans on top
- Add the chili packet and stir it in
- Cook on low for seven hours – Trail Mix goes well with cornbread or biscuits. A generous stack of saltine crackers will do too in the absence of cornbread or biscuits.
As my father would say, “that stuff’ll clear out your sinuses!” Now go enjoy that shit!
The SoBros Recipe Book
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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