We are adding favorite family recipes to our website and this is one of the first. My sister Nancy’s mother-in-law, Velma Catelli, used to make this chili and I have loved it since I was just a young kid. It can have a spicy kick, your choice, yet it has a rich slightly sweet taste.
Ingredients
Prep and Cooking Times
| Overnight | Soak beans for 8+ hours |
| 30 Minutes | Mix dry ingredients Dice onion, garlic, hot peppers If stew meat, cube in to 1/2 inch pieces In a large pot, bring pre-soaked beans to a boil. Remove or add water to cover beans by ½ inch. In large frying pan, add meat, mix in dry ingredients, the diced onion, garlic, hot peppers, and the Pico Pica sauce. Cook until meat is cooked and onion is slightly translucent. |
| Cook time 2 ½ Hrs | After adding the seasoned cooked meat to the beans, turn to low simmer and cover (make sure the beans have about ½ of water above the beans) In last 40 minutes of cooking, add 32 oz bottle of ketchup and bring back to a simmering boil – uncover |
Helpful Hints:
Wash and rinse the beans. Beans often will contain small rocks, so during the rinse try to get those out. Also, a few beans will float – I usually toss those floating beans out. Beans will absorb a lot of water when soaking, so make sure the pot you soak the beans in is large and cover the beans with at least 6″ of water. You can remove water after soaking as needed.
For a more beefy and richer chili bean batch, add an additional pound of beef.