How to Make Home Made Chili from Scratch

For a large pot of home made chili, start with a pound of dries pinto beans. Sort the dried, beans, taking out any shriveled beans (sometimes you will also find tiny stones or other little treasures in your dried beans, so you definitely don't want to skip the sorting process.)

Put your sorted pinto beans into a large bowl of cold water, and let them soak over night. In the morning, change the water, rinse the beans, and add fresh water to the pan of beans. Let them soak again for five or six hours. Soaking the beans will help soften them and release some of the gas.

Rinse the beans, and put them into a large heavy pot, covered with water. Bring the beans to a boil. When they reach the boiling point, turn the heat down, and let them simmer for about two hours. Make sure you keep them covered with plenty of water, adding more if you need to.

After the pinto beans have simmered for two hours, let them cool down. This will take a couple hours. Once they're cooled enough, cover the pot, and put it in the refrigerator, leaving it there over night.

In the morning, take the pot out, and put it on the stove burner on high. Add about eight bullion cubes, a can of tomato paste, a tablespoon of cumin, a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a teaspoon of chili powder. In a pan on a separate burner, cook a pound of ground beef, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. When the ground beef is done, add it to the chili.

Bring the chili to a boil again, and then turn it down to a simmer, and let it simmer, uncovered, until the beans are tender. Add more seasonings in small quantities as it cooks, adjusting the flavor to your taste.