Adam's Spankin' good chili!

I named this chili myself. My friend Adam (more commonly known as Spanky) gave me this recipe for chili that he won the Rackspace chili contest with. It's delicious!!

I adjusted things a little to lower the heat level, so here's what Adam did followed by the little adjustments I made:

Adam's Spankin' good chili!

1/2 pound Peppered bacon-Dice it up along with a whole white/yellow onion (your choice, I did white), about 5-6 big cloves of garlic and three good sized Serrano peppers seeded. Cook bacon about half way and then add onion, garlic, peppers diced and a couple of bay leaves. Sauté till onion is clear in color. Add the beef. I did 3 lbs. I did 2 lbs of 80/20 and 1 lb of 70/30. I then added 9 T (that's right, table!) of Fiesta Quick Chili seasoning and about 1 T of crushed red pepper seeds. Cooked till all was brown and let simmer for about 30 minutes. I then added 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can rotel, 1 can diced tomato and 1 can of kidney beans rinsed. Then 2 cans of ranch style beans. You know the ones with the black label. MMMMMM! I then let that simmer for about an hour on low. Serve it with cheese and red onion diced! BAM! The next thing you know, 1st place. I didn't drain any grease. You can.

My adjustments:

I did the peppered bacon (it gives the chili a very smoky peppery flavor), white onion, 6 big cloves of garlic minced, 1 good sized serrano pepper seeded and diced (instead of 3), the 3 lbs of meat Adam suggested, 9 T of Fiesta brand chili seasoning, 1 small can of tomato paste, 2 cans mild rotel, 1 can diced tomato, 2 cans rinsed kidney beans, 2 cans ranch style beans. I cooked everything just as he outlined. YUM!