Game Day Chili

I’ll be honest with you, football may not be my favorite sport to watch (I’m more of a baseball girl, my husband is the Pats fan), but I do love all of the food that goes along with football games.  I can also respect and clearly understand the importance of tonights AFC championship game.  The New England Patriots face off against the Indianapolis Colts and the game tonight will be eagerly watched in the Buck house.   I’m sure a good deal of you will be watching too.  

So, in order to give a nod to the gridiron I have decided to go with a themed dinner tonight, game food!  In our pre-game celebration the Bucks are teaming up with the Anderson’s to enjoy chili stuffed baked potatoes, a classic red cabbage slaw, and cookie dip with pound cake and apples to dip with.  Sound like fun?  Sunday dinners around here usually are.  I mean really, what’s better than good food, good friends, and hopefully a great game?  Not much.  Go Pats!!

Let’s start with out main dish tonight.  I bake the potatoes first to give them a chance to cool completely so  I can handle them easily.  So, bake the potatoes and scoop out the middle of the potato leaving a thick layer of potato for the chili to sit in.  

To start the chili I brown the meat in the same pan I plan on cooking in.  This time I used Springdell ground beef and one link of the Springdell hot Italian sausage out of the casing.  Brown this well in the pot.

Add your spices, unsweetened chocolate, tomato sauce and beef stock to the pot and mix well.  Bring this to a simmer and then back it down to low and let all the flavors mingle for a good 2-3 hours.

 My chili came out too spicy for my liking so I added a cup of my go-to squash purée.  Worked like a charm.  Spoon the chili into the potato cups and top them with sour cream and shredded cheese, maybe some scallions too.