We’re up in Breckenridge and the local super market has a sale on London Broil steaks, so we picked up a couple of them. I’ve been craving chili, so we decided to make some using the steaks. We looked up a few recipes and didn’t have all the ingredients for the different recipes, so we used pieces from different recipes we found and kind of winged it. Luckily, chili is very flexible and subjective, so it turned out great.
I’ve had enough chili in my life to know that some have beans and some don’t, but I enjoy them all. Since most of the recipes we found had beans, we added beans to our.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (divided)
- 2 lbs cubed London broil (bite sized piece)
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 2 jalapenos, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 tbsp chili powder
- 1.5 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp dried oregon
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 6 Roma or Campari tomatoes, chopped (or 28 oz can of chopped or diced tomatoes)
- 1 can of beer (Mexican lager or other lighter beer)
- 2 cans of beans, drained and rinsed (we used kidney beans and cannellini but you can use any bean you choose.)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Grated cheddar cheese, chopped onions, sliced jalapenos, and tortilla chips, for topping
Preparation
- Turn on the slow cooker to get it heated.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet and coat the beef with a light dusting of salt and pepper, then brown the beef on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes.
- While the beef is cooking, put the dry ingredients into a small bowl and add ¼ cup of beer to create a paste.
- Place the tomato paste in the heated slow cooker and let it bloom for a couple of minutes.. Then add the browned beef and the remaining beer.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil, then lightly salt and pepper the onions and jalapeno peppers and sautee them until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes..
- Add garlic to the onions and jalapenos and continue cooking for another 2 or 3 minutes.
- Add the chili paste to the onions, jalapenos, and garlic, and mix thoroughly and continue cooking for another two minutes.
- Transfer the sauteed vegetables with the chili paste to the slow cooker.
- Add the chopped tomatoes to the slow cooker.
- Add the beans to the slow cooker.
- Add water until you get the consistency you want. About 1.5 cups.
- Stir well and taste for flavor. Add salt & pepper as necessary.
- Cook on high for 6 hours.
- Top each serving with your choice of any (or all) of the following: grated cheddar cheese, chopped onions, sliced jalapenos, and tortilla chips.
Tips
We did not remove the seeds or inner membranes from the jalapenos, but you can remove them if you want to reduce the heat level.
We did not have beef broth, but if we did, we probably would have used this instead of the water.
About 4 hours into the cook, we noticed our chili was a little watery, so we added a flour slurry, by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour into 1 cup of water and whisking until smooth. Then slowly poured the slurry into the chili and let it continue cooking in the slow cooker for 2 more hours.