cooking chili in a crockpot?

Hello! I'm a novice crockpot user and am thinking of making chili in it. Are you supposed to cook the ground beef first and then just put it in the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients all at once? Advice please - thank you!

Yes, cook the beef first. If you're going to add onions I'd cook those too, and also add the chili powder to the meat a little bit before it's done to fry it a bit as well - it very much improves the flavor.

I've never made chili in my crockpot, since it's usually kind of a recreational exercise, but I think it'd be a good way to go if you just have other stuff to do.

You've hit all the nails right on the head!

If you have to brown the meat and onions anyways, why not add the rest of the ingredients and let it cook for an hour (or more) the night before. Refrigerate it. The next day, scrape off the fat, and reheat.

I don't see much advantage to using the crockpot for this dish.

paulj

I would recommend you buy a chuck roast and cut it into 1/2" cubes and brown it first instead of using ground beef. Ground beef tends to get too soupy after long simmering. Chilidude should have some thoughts on this.
Bob

For a twist you can use packaged pre-marinated carne asada chopped in small pieces instead of ground beef- does not need to be pre-cooked and really adds something. Also, because of the lack of reduction in a crock pot, I also like to add some corn meal during the last half hour to thicken things up and add taste as well. Have fun- Super Bowl?

Yup. Whenever you use ground beef in a crock pot you want to cook it first. The crock pot cooks too slowly to safely cook ground beef.

Enjoy your new crockpot!

We had to go to a get-together all afternoon and I put chili fixings in the crockpot before I left,. Browned ground beef, onion and green pepper, added tomatoes, tomatoes and green chilis, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder and a can of beer. It was very good,