Crock Pot Treat: Beef Chili

I may be a crock pot addict.  I have been waiting for an excuse to buy a crock pot for awhile, and a few months ago, it finally happened!  I actually didn't have much of a good excuse, but it was one of those days where we had nothing to do and ended up walking down the aisles of Target. I quickly grabbed the box and put it into our cart before my husband could open his mouth.  I gave him the "I really want it!!" look, and he returned a "sigh, of course..." look.  I excitedly purchased this piece of equipment and finally cracked it over this past week.  After making the below chili, I am totally hooked.  It is so easy to use and so relaxing for the cook.  All it took was a few chops of the ingredients, a little mixing, then turning on the crock pot and walking away. 

This chili is a bit different than the typical ones I make.  Chili usually contains ground meat, such as ground beef or turkey.  However, we haven't had a big juicy steak in a long while now, so on a recent Costco run, we purchased 3 big slabs of ribeye steaks.  On the same day, we fired up the grill and had grilled steaks for dinner (delish).  There was one slab left, so I decided to use it for chili because I believed the slow cooker would have made the steak cubes tender and soft, which turned out to be true.  You just wait, more crock pot treats to come!

Beef Chili

Ingredients
- 1 large ribeye steak, seared and cubed
- 1 Tbsp olive oil (for searing steak)
- salt and pepper (for searing steak)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 box of sliced cremini mushrooms
- 2 small chilies, finely diced
- 1 15 oz can kidney beans
- 1 14 oz diced (or crushed) canned tomatoes
- 1 cup unsalted beef broth (can use chicken stock if that's all you have)
- 2 Tbsp chili powder
- 2 Tbsp ketchup
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper

Tools
- crock pot

love this thing!

Steps
1. Heat a pan with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and place the ribeye steak in the pan.  Salt and pepper and steak and sear the steak for 5 minutes per side.  Remove from pan and let the steak sit, for about 20 minutes.  Cut the steak into small cubes and set aside.

2. Place the bell pepper, carrot, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chilies, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, beef stock, chili powder, ketchup, salt, and black pepper in the pot and mix. Add cubed steak and mix.

3. Turn on the crock pot to High and let it cook for 4 to 5 hours (yes, just walk away from the machine!).  Depending on how thick you like your chili, check the chili at the 3-hour time point and add more stock as desired.

Serves 6-8.