Your Next Comfort Meal | Cheese Pie and Slow Cooker Chili

Today I'm going to show you another delicious combo for comfort food, cheese pie and crockpot chili. Each of these are delicious on their own, but together, it's amazing. Here we go. So I'm starting off with around three pounds of beef chuck roast, and I'm going to cut into small pieces like this. And I've separated some of the fat because I'm going to start by cooking that first. In a preheated pan, I'm going to add the fat trimmings and let that cook first a little bit to render some of the fat. By the way, if you hear piano in the background, that is my son practicing because I'm trying to get a head start with his crockpot chili and it's in the morning. Okay, I added oil to the pan and salt to the meat. So now I'm going to cook this in batches. You want to make sure you cook this through or at least get really good browning on the exterior of the meat. That's really going to make this tender later. Okay, so just continue cooking. It kind of goes through stages. It turns gray and you'll get some brown bits, but you really want to get great color just like this. Browning your meat well also adds the best flavor to any type of stew that you're making when it comes to beef chuck roast or any type of meat for that matter. Okay, so now I'm going to add a pound of lean ground beef and I am going to add some salt. I'm also adding this garlic salt and pepper blend and I'm just going to break that apart and continue cooking and browning and you'll notice the ground beef kind of picks up the fond leftover from the other stew meat. So this is going to go into my crockpot. By the way, I'm working with a six quart crockpot. I'm going to add three tablespoons of fancy light chili powder. Here I'm going to add probably like one or two teaspoons of ground cumin. I'm also adding some of that salt pepper garlic blend into the mix and onion powder. I will put the ratios I use in the description below. Here I'm going to add some smoked paprika, probably like two or three teaspoons and one dried bay leaf. I'm also going to add a 10.5 ounce can of French onion soup because I have it and one can of beef broth. I think this is like a 14 ounce can. Also I make crockpot chili so many different ways. This is just what I'm doing today. I'm going to add one heaping tablespoon of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. If you want it spicier, add an extra tablespoon. So just give all of that a good mix. And again, if you want to add some Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, some apple cider vinegar, those are all flavor profiles in chili. I'm going to add a 15 ounce can of ranch style beans. I drained off some of the liquid. Now give that a mix. And what I'm going to do is slow cook this and set everything to high. And you'll want to cook this for about four and a half to five hours or until everything is tender. Okay, cheese pie or cheese and potato pie. I've seen the term used interchangeably with this specific dish. And this is a British or English baked dish. And you start with your potatoes. You'll want to peel clean and cut them up. And this is essentially a, like a baked cheesy mashed potato dish. Okay, so I'm going to put all of my potatoes in a pot of clean water, turn this on. I'm going to add some of that salt pepper garlic blend into the water. You could just add salt to season or flavor the water. Here I'm going to add some chicken bouillon powder, like a teaspoon. And what I'm going to do is bring that up to a boil and cook until fork tender. I'm going to add the lid and offset it. I'm going to check on the chili now. So in the last hour of cook time, you'll want to add a cornstarch slurry. I'm going to add like one and a half tablespoons of cornstarch and then add two tablespoons of cold water. You want to mix that up and that creates the cornstarch slurry that's going to tighten up the chili. Before you add this to the chili, or at least what I'm doing today, you'll notice that a lot of fat has rendered and it's on the top. So I'm going to skim that off the surface before adding the cornstarch slurry. You'll want to give that a really good mix. Also, I'm going to remove the bay leaf. I think it's done its job. Everything smells very aromatic. Okay, and set that aside. So what I'm going to do is cover with a lid and let it continue cooking for one more hour or until it's tender and cooked through. Okay, so in a pan, I'm going to add some ghee. You could add a little cooking oil or butter. I melt that down. And I am going to saute one small onion that I thinly slice. You could really elevate the cheese potato pie by caramelizing your onions, but I'm just going to give them a really good saute. Here I'm adding a pinch of salt and I'm just going to cook them through. I have seen several recipe videos where they boil the onions. I don't know if that's traditional or authentic, but a good sauteed onion would go well with this. So that's what I'm doing. Okay, so the potatoes should be done. And like I said, you want to make sure they're fork tender. Okay, yes, this is perfect. I love a good soft, tender, creamy potato. So I'm going to drain out all of the water. And these potatoes, you really don't have to add heavy cream or milk to them. I am adding butter, so like two tablespoons of butter, and I'm going to give them a good mash. And you'll want to season, salt and pepper to taste. And honestly, these mashed potatoes, they're so versatile. You can add herbs into the mix, maybe a little thyme or rosemary. I think it's really up to you. You can do a lot of things with these, but I'm just going to keep it simple today and just mash these with salt and pepper. And like I said before, you'll want to salt and season to taste. So I'm just going to add that salt, give it a mix. Now for the sautéed onions, and you'll want to give that a good mix. And these are done. I'm going to set these aside until I'm ready to use them. For the potato cheese pie, I'm going to be using around 8 to 10 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I'm using white and yellow sharp cheddar. So here I have a buttered 8 by 8 square baking dish. And I'm going to start building the layers. You'll want to start with half of the potato and onion mixture and just create a layer on the bottom. Now I'm going to add half of my shredded cheese. I've also seen people add cheese into the potatoes. You totally could do that, but I just did it in layers. So the second layer after the cheese is the potatoes, cheese again. And now what I'm going to do is top it with thinly sliced Roma tomato. This was just one tomato that I thinly sliced to cover the surface area of the top of this. And you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. And you're going to bake this uncovered until everything is cheesy, bubbly and kind of crispy on the edges and toasty on top. It's going to take like 25 to 30 minutes. So this has been baking for about 30 minutes and it smells and looks amazing. So the hardest part is just letting it set for about 15 minutes before slicing into it or cutting into it. So if you can do that, then you're gold. So I'm going to let this set. And my chili should be about done. And I'll show you a plate. This is what we're having for dinner. So I've seen several recipes and the couple that I've seen did not have any egg or egg yolks into the potatoes, but I feel like if you do add an egg yolk, if you cool the potatoes down first, it'll help to set it up into square pieces. But quite honestly, I'm not complaining because this, this is going to be good. So now it's time to top it with this delicious, tender, savory chili. This slow cooker chili, I'm going to make this all winter long. It really is my favorite. So you just add it right on top and garnishes are up to you. If you want sour cream, jalapenos, more cheese, look, make it the way you like it. I'm going with a little bit of chopped, fresh chives. Even green onion would be great with this. And this is it. This is the dinner. I hope you give this recipe a try. I hope you like it. And thanks for watching!