This crockpot chili is really what got me started with slow cooker cooking. Many thanks to @cmgurski for the original recipe which I have modified.

This recipe is sized for a large (8 quart) crockpot. This is a lot of chili. On the plus side, it freezes great.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (ideally coarser chili ground)

1 lb ground turkey

1.25 cups dry black beans

1.25 cups dry great northern beans

1 large sweet onion, diced

1 large green pepper, diced

1 large whole jalapeno, minced (with seeds)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 28 oz can tomato sauce

1 fresh tomato, diced

1 packet safeway chili seasoning

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp cajun seasoning

Instructions

Soak beans in a large pot of water for at least 8 hours. Change the water at least 3 times, rinsing the beans each time.

Rinse beans a final time and put back in pot full of water. Bring the beans to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Then, reduce heat to simmer and cook for two hours. This method produces very well-cooked beans that aren't overdone.

Combine the turkey and ground beef in a saucepan on medium heat (note you will want to use a large pan). Cook until very lightly browned (basically just take the pink off). Stir frequently with a spatula and break up all the chunks for even cooking.

Drain the fat off the meat and put it back on the stove at medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, jalapeno, and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent, stirring frequently.

Set crock pot on medium heat. Pour the meat mixture into the crockpot. Add all other ingredients and stir well to blend them.

Leave crockpot to cook on medium heat overnight (8 hours or so). This mixture has a lot of liquid so it's quite difficult to overcook or burn it.

Notes

If you don't have any cajun spice, substitute cayenne pepper.

I like the safeway chili seasoning mix but it's pretty bland. The McCormick spicy mix gives this chili quite a bit of punch if you want to go that way. Another good way to increase the heat is to add a second minced jalapeno.

If you don't want to spend the time to prepare your own beans, you can use a couple of cans of precooked kidney beans instead. I like to mix one can white and one can red kidney beans.

If you do start with dry kidney beans, it's extremely important to boil the beans.

I like to include the fresh tomato because I find it really accentuates the tomato flavor nicely and adds to the texture of the chili.

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