I’m a chili snob. There. I said it. A little personal insight into the twisted mind of Shawn E. Bell.
For decades I’ve cooked chili, attended chili cook-offs, sampled great (and not so great) chili, and traveled wherever there was chili to be had. I’ve amassed hand-written notebooks and computer directories that are chock full of recipes for every kind of chili known to man. I’ve had quinoa chili, white chili, black bean chili, bison chili, squirrel chili, varmint chili, Texas chili, Cincinnati chili, con carne and straight chili. Chili from Pink’s, Tommy’s, Hemingway’s, Wienerschnitzel, and many other restaurants that touted this awesome food.
Wherever there is chili to be had, I am there.
As a chili snob, though, I have an Achilles heel; I don’t care for Dutch ovens. Fill ‘em up, and they’re heavy. Temperature-wise, they’re neurotic and fickle. And with many of the meats, you have to cook them separately – which just adds to the clean-up.
Never had much use for the big, heavy cooking pot, and this is probably why I’ll lever make it on the Chili Cook-Off circuit.
I do all of my chili cooking in slow cookers. I’ve had a number of them over the years, and they have all worked (or didn’t work) to varying degrees. I’ve had some fail right out of the box, others that seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to temperature, a few clock watchers who decided they were done when they were done – not when I told them they should be done, and still others that have worked like good little troopers right up to the day they inexplicably die.
And when each of them have shuffled off this mortal cooking coil it’s inevitable that they’ve all done it just out of warranty.
This year, I’m embarking on an adventure; I’m going to compile and test my favorite chili recipes. The best of the best are going to be assembled into an as-yet-unnamed chili cookbook, the rest are going to be cursed at over a toilet for the wretched failures that they were. To do this, I’m going to have to get a new slow cooker. I’ve reviewed quite a few, and what I’m looking for comes down to two things:
- Reliability
- Ease of clean-up
Reliability is a given; I don’t like coming home to my chili to find it half-cooked or dried out because the temperature wasn’t even during the cooking process. I need something that will work the same way every single time, and will work for as long as it takes me to try out all the recipes I have to test. And by testing, I mean cooking maybe 20 chili recipes – or more – a month.
Ease of clean up is kind of subjective; I like to use slow-cooker condoms so that I’m not spending tons of time washing out the pot. But that’s not the only issue; I don’t want to be washing out extra pans or utensils, either. At the end of the day, I’m lazy. I’d like to do all of my cooking in one pot, if possible.
In reviewing my slow-cooker options, that leads me to one of the more expensive units in the slow-cooker world: the Ninja Cooking System. The website touts the product as “The revolutionary way to prepare more flavorful meals faster than ever before!” Reviews seem overwhelmingly positive (four or more stars out of five). Advertising says that you can “steam, roast, bake, sear, plus slow cook” and do stovetop cooking. This is perfect for making chili!
If any of y’all out there have experience with the Ninja, please drop me a line, I’m very interested in your reviews.
And if anyone wants a bowl chili any time over the course of this cooking exercise, I’m sure I’ll have extra! You might get tri-tip, you might get squirrel. I’m just sayin’…