Shredded Beef Chilli Con Carne - a Deliciously, Hearty Meal for a Chilli Night

Have you ever wanted a recipe for those cold Winter nights that you can eat whilst watching a movie or perhaps snuggled on a couch reading a book? Well, I have a treat for you today! This shredded beef chilli con carne recipe has so much flavour, and it's PERFECT comfort food for those chilli (see what I did there) nights.

There are so many different combinations (scroll down to the bottom for ideas) in terms of how you can serve this dish, it is honestly so versatile.

I mean, can you imagine sitting down with a bowl of this deliciously tender beef combined with hearty beans in a flavoursome tomato-based broth?

I kid you not this is the end result and I've made this dozens of times, perfect every single time! It's foolproof :) Let's start cooking...

Chilli Con Carne With A Twist

Traditional chilli con carne is typically made with minced meat but I love the taste and texture of a big hunk of beef that's slow-cooked until it falls apart. I find that it's a great twist on the normal chilli con carne and the flavour you get from the beef breaking down over 8 hours is incredible. Trust me!! You'll WANT to be eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Recipe

Step One

Ingredients required:

(and the beef of course - I used about 1.5kg - 2.0kg of chuck roast beef)

Step Two

Saute the diced capsicum, onion and garlic until it softens and develops some colour. Transfer to the slow-cooker.

Step Three

Salt and pepper the beef and sear it in a heavy-bottomed pan until it's brown on all sides. Transfer to the slow-cooker on top of the onion/garlic/capsicum mix.

Add in the spices, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and kidney beans. I also added some corn flour mixed with water to help the sauce to thicken.

Cook on high for 8 hours or low for 14 hours. Often I leave it overnight and OMG the smell that wakes you up in the morning is heavenly.

Step Four

This is what the beef should look like after 8 hours, it's super tender, I should've gotten a video but you can just lightly press with a fork and it just falls apart. Shred all the beef and put back into the slow cooker.

Step Five

End result...

Deliciously aromatic, you'll just want to dunk your head in it haha. Ok maybe not but it's really tasty and for hardly any work. The slow-cooker did all the heavy lifting, all we did was sear a few ingredients and then chuck it all in. It's so worth it and it makes enough for about 12 people!! We're only a family of two so I often freeze 3 boxes to eat whenever we're lazy to cook and eat the rest on the day :)

So Many Combinations to Serve!

This dish is so universal in that you can serve it in a number of different ways. Here are some of the ways I often serve this dish:

TACOS

Lettuce, chopped tomato, guacomole, corn tacos = YUM. This'll be better than any other beef taco you try!

HEALTHY CHILLI BOWL!

CHILLI CON CARNE BOWL

For when you want those extra carbs - pretty much me all the time!!

Final Thoughts

For such little effort this dish really packs so much depth and flavour, not to mention it makes a HUGE amount so you'll be able to feed a huge family or, you'll have plenty leftover for when you don't want to cook as it freezes really well.

I love his versatile this dish is, I usually prefer to eat it with rice whilst my husband prefers the crunchy tacos and this dish allows us to have two dishes with the one main!

Give it a go and let me know what you think - hope you guys enjoyed this one!

@phamished xx

All photos in this post are taken by me on my Sony NEX-5N.