Nothing like a hot tasty bowl of chili on a cold winter’s day! You can use any combination of meats you want. For this one, I used ground beef, ground pork, stew beef and bacon (about 1# of each).
I start with 4 bell peppers, usually 2 green and 2 red, but you can mix up the colors. Split each in half, remove the seeds and ribs, place on a baking sheet, spray with cooking spray, and broil for 8-12 minutes until the skins blister and the peppers can be peeled.
Peel the peppers and chop into smaller pieces.
While the peppers are broiling, chop and cook the bacon into large bacon bits. Maximize the surface area of your ground meat and let smoke for 30 minutes, along with the stew beef.
After the meat is smoked, cook thoroughly on the stove while you smoke the vegies. In addition to the peppers, chop up 2 white onions. Smoke the whole medley for 30 minutes.
While the vegies are smoking, prepare the base. Start with 1 ea 28oz can of tomato sauce, 1 ea 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, and 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes. Place all in a Dutch oven and 1T garlic, 3T chili powder, 1T black pepper and 2t salt.
Stir in the prepared meats and veggies. Return to smoker in the Dutch oven, uncovered, and increase temperature to 250F. Cook for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Remove from smoker and finish on the stove. Cover and bring chili to a simmer, allowing it to simmer for an hour before serving. Add cheese and sour cream as a garnish if desired.