Slow Cooked Chili

Three days. Clay deploys Thursday. Valentine's Day. The countdown is over. The waiting is over. The thing I've been dreading for thirteen months — since the recruiter's card appeared on the kitchen table in April 2017 — is here.

I drove Clay to Fort Campbell on Wednesday. Fort Campbell, Kentucky-Tennessee border, where his unit assembles before deployment. Connie came. We drove in silence for the first hour. Then Clay said, from the back seat, "Tell me about the mine." Not the mines, plural. The mine, singular. The collapse. He's never asked about it in detail. I've written about it on the blog, but he's never asked me, face to face, in a truck, with his mother listening.

I told him. The dark. The rock. The seventeen hours. The four men in a room the size of a living room with no light and limited air. The praying. The thinking about Betty's fried chicken. The thinking about Connie. The deal with God. The rescue team breaking through at 4:17 AM. Walking out. Squinting. Connie waiting.

Clay listened. Then he said: "Were you scared?" I said "Every second." He said "But you went back. You went back into the mines after the collapse." I said "Yes." He said "Why?" I said "Because it was my work. Because Connie needed feeding. Because Hensley men go into the mountain." He was quiet. Then he said "That's why I'm going." Not because of patriotism or adventure or escape. Because Hensley men go into the mountain. His mountain is in Afghanistan and his reason is the same as mine was: it's his work, and the people at home need him to come back, and going is what Hensleys do.

At Fort Campbell, we said goodbye. Connie hugged him and said things I couldn't hear. I shook his hand and pulled him in and said "You come home" for the third time, which is now a tradition, a ritual, a prayer compressed into three words. He said "I will." He turned and walked toward the building and he didn't look back and Connie and I stood in the parking lot and the sun was setting and February was cold and my son was walking into his mountain and I was watching and waiting and that is my work now. Waiting. Cooking. Holding the door open.

We drove home in the dark. Connie fell asleep. I drove and listened to Merle Haggard and thought about the mine and the mountain and the sand and the dark and the light that comes back when someone breaks through.

We got home near midnight and the house was too quiet and too warm and I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Connie went to bed. I stood in the kitchen for a while. Then I started pulling things out of the pantry — beans, tomatoes, the good chili powder — because this is what I do now, this is my work: waiting and cooking and holding the door open. I put the chili on low and went to bed, and in the morning the whole house smelled like something worth coming home to. That’s the only reason I need.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 6–8 hours | Total Time: Up to 8 hours 20 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Shredded cheddar, sour cream, and green onions for serving

Instructions

Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef until no longer pink, breaking it up as it cooks, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat and transfer to the slow cooker.
Soften the aromatics. In the same skillet, cook the diced onion and bell pepper over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Transfer to the slow cooker.
Build the pot. Add the kidney beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and beef broth to the slow cooker. Stir to combine.
Season. Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, black pepper, salt, and cayenne if using. Stir everything together until the tomato paste is fully incorporated.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours or on HIGH for 3–4 hours. Taste and adjust salt and seasoning in the last hour.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and sliced green onions. Serve with cornbread or crackers.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow Cooked Chili — Something Simmering When He Comes Home