Another year, another chili

It seems like every year the Super Bowl ads get less funny, effective or otherwise useful as a sales tool. If Guy Fieri and a cute horse are your only slightly memorable bits, well, that's saying something. And you know you're going to have the requisite clop-clop horse ad.

But at least there's always a big pot of chili for half time. Dave gleefully dubbed this chili con corny.

Chipotle corn and two-bean chili

Adapted from Cooking Light, July 2006 issue.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
¾ teaspoon salt
1 pound ground beef
1½ cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes
1 can corn, drained, liquid reserved (or use 1½ cups frozen plus 1 cup of water)
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 tablespoons chopped chipotle in adobe sauce 
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Chopped green onions
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Sour cream

Method

Combine chili, cumin and salt in a small bowl. Put ground beef in a large pot (it filled my second largest pot, and I've got big pots to choose from). Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of spice mixture over beef. Break up with the back of a spoon and cook over medium heat until beef is browned. Remove from pot and set aside.

Add onion to pot and cook until tender. Add remaining spice mixture, garlic and oregano and cook for a minute. Add tomatoes and corn. Add enough water to reserved corn liquid to make 1 cup and add that to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beef, zucchini, chipotle and beans. Cover and simmer a half hour to give flavors time to blend.

Serve topped with chopped green onions, Cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.

Rating: I had a strong suspicion that this recipe was one of those that benefits from being made ahead, since it's basically a ton of canned goods waiting to absorb flavor. I didn't get around to it in advance, so I just assembled this before the game started, turned off the heat after the final simmer and then reheated it at half time. Decent flavor. Comes together with very few dishes, aside from all those cans. The chipotle gives it some heat but not an overwhelming amount.

Did I really need to try yet another chili recipe? No. But that way at least there's some innovation each year to keep me entertained amid the game Dave rightfully labelled puntorama.