Chili Stuffed Baked Potato
Long before food trends would be whisked in with the rigor of beating egg whites to stiff peaks, I experienced the novel idea of a Chili Stuffed Baked Potato. Somehow it didn’t seem novel, or at least trendy to me at the time, it was the Southwest after all. In fact, the combination seemed to make perfect sense, and I thought it delicious.
A dollop of creamy white sour cream, highlights of golden colored shredded cheddar cheese, finely chopped green onions sprinkled all about continue to magically transform a good hot crock of spicy chili to its well-deserved heights.
These same ingredients also continue to complement the glorious baked potato, though just for historical purposes, you more frequently had to pay ‘extra’ for the sour cream on your baked potato at a number of dining establishments in the old days, including many of those steak centric.
Chili in the course of its national history, has, in many parts of the country continued to maintain its traditional fervent core, with beans or without.
Chili has too also been transformed even among the simpler chili versions crowd such as in the use of now mainstreamed spices; cayenne pepper, Mexican chili powder, Spanish smoked paprika, and in the creative use of more diverse base ingredients such as ground turkey or chicken to those of vegetarian specialties.
Still, anyway you cook it, chili always earns the distinction for its ease of preparation, good flavor, and with an added benefit that it can also be frozen for later use.
When it comes to hot cooked chili, sprinkled or dolloped with tasty colorful toppings, whether it’s traditional, novel, or trendy, it’s always delicious, the Chili Stuffed Baked Potato.
Chili Stuffed Baked Potato
Notes
Chili will serve 8 and may be frozen.
Ingredients
- 4 large Russet Baking Potatoes
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 5 thin scallions, white and green parts, chopped finely
- For the Chili:
- 4 slices of bacon, cut into quarter size
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, approximately
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 5-6 hot green peppers, (long green, jalapeno, etc...) seeds removed, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- For the Chili Spices:
- 1 teaspoon each: cumin, Mexican chili powder, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, Spanish smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano, coarse kosher salt,
- cracked black pepper, 2 bay leaves
- 2 cans whole tomatoes, juice included
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock/broth
- 1 15.5 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15.5 ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15.5 ounce can Bush's Best Chili Beans in Medium or hot sauce
- 1 21 ounce can Bush's Texas Ranchero Pinto Beans with mild jalapenos simmered in red chili sauce
Instructions
- Preparing the Chili: Heat a large cast iron enameled pan on very low heat, add bacon pieces. Cook bacon around five minutes, stir in the chopped onions, celery and hot peppers cook around five minutes add in the garlic, stir.
- Tumble in the ground beef and stir with the vegetable mixture, raise heat to medium and cook until meat begins to brown
- Stir in the spice mixture, let spices cook for three minutes
- Add in whole tomatoes with liquid, and the beef stock, stir, reduce temperature back down to very low and simmer around twenty minutes
- Add in all of the beans, continue to simmer chili on very low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least forty-five minutes or longer until flavors fully develop
- For the Chili Stuffed Baked Potato: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash Potato and fork all around. Bake potatoes until fully softened through, around forty-five to fifty minutes. Cut baked potato down the center lengthwise, pour over a ladle full of chili. Top with a dollop of sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese. Scatter over the chopped scallions
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