Chili with Pork and Mushrooms

It's time to revamp an old recipe using a version of my new beloved blend and extend method but this time I am trying it with ground pork. I am happy to report that it works just as beautifully with ground piggy as it does with ground beef and I am plan to blend and extend all of my ground pork recipes over the winter.

This is really just a solid, basic chili recipe using ground pork instead of ground beef and you could totally replace the pork with beef without losing anything. For that matter, you could sub in ground poultry as well.

Chili with Pork and Mushrooms

350g ground lean pork
150 g mushrooms of your choice, ground in a food processor until crumbly
glug of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, small dice
2 cups tomato puree
3/4 cup chicken stock (or beer but I didn't have any)
1 540 ml can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomatillo salsa ( I use the PC brand but use what you have)
salt and pepper
1 tbls mexican oregano
1 tbls ground cumin
1 tbls chili powder
cilantro
l tbl lime juice

Heat a heavy pot over med heat. Add a small glug of oil and brown the ground pork. When it's cooked, remove it to a bowl using a slotted spoon and set it aside. If there is more than a tbls or so of fat in the bottom of the pot, get rid of enough to leave you with about a tbls. Throw the onions, garlic and celery into the pot and sauté until softened, about five minutes. Now, add in the ground mushrooms and cook until they start to brown up a bit. At that point, add the pork back in and stir to mix well. Add the tomato puree, the salsa, the chicken stock, black beans, oregano, cumin and chili powder and bring to a light simmer. Lower the heat and let it simmer gently for about an hour or so. It's chili so it can certainly simmer a bit longer than an hour but not less that that. During the last ten minutes of cooking add a handful of chopped cilantro and the lime juice, stir and let it simmer for ten minutes before taking it off the heat.

Chili is always better after it sits so if you can make it in the morning and then reheat it for supper that's great but it will be even tastier the next day.

Of course, you could also throw the whole think in a slow cooker after the meat and the onion/garlic/celery have been done and let it cook on low all day too.


serve with more cilantro, a wedge of lime, whatever things you like on your chili - we do sour cream or crema and some tortilla chips