quick and dirty chili

I know, I know. It's sacrilege to make "quick" chili. It needs a long time to cook over low heat so the flavors can meld, blah blah blah. I KNOW. But sometimes...sometimes I get home from work and need to used a bunch of leftovers and I'm in the mood for chili right then and there. Sometimes I don't have three hours (or far longer) to let it simmer. That's where quick and dirty chili comes in!

I started with some bacon drippings in a big pot, and added a medium-sized onion, chopped up. While the onion softened over medium heat, I chopped up 6 cloves of garlic (I really like garlic, and some of the cloves were small, honest). That went into the pot when the onions were about halfway soft. After that, I had about two cups each of shredded beef and pork left over from the past few days' kitchen exploits which got added in. Next came spices - I used a mixture of 1 Tbsp chili powder, 2 Tbsp ground cumin, 1 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and about 3/4 of a tsp of sea salt. I mixed that in and let it cook for another couple minutes, then added a 28oz can of organic diced tomatoes with their juice, and half a cup of water. This all got a thorough stir and then I let it cook on medium-high for about 8 minutes, then spooned it into bowls and topped it with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped avocado. Ta-dah!

Now, I won't lie to you. It wasn't as good as honest-to-goodness, simmered-for-hours chili...but for a healthy, 20 minute start-to-finish meal that used up a bunch of leftovers and got us fed with a minimum of dirty dishes and labor? Pretty damn good. Also, for my Primal- and Paleo-adherent readers, I realize the sour cream is a no-no, but you could easily leave it off and it would be just fine. :)