Last month the company that I work for had an employee picnic at a local park. Since it was such a nice day, and we were kidless, my husband and I decided to ride our bikes to the event. Wichita isn’t the most bike-friendly town, so we decided to start riding from his dad’s house, which wasn’t that far from the newly striped bike lanes. Riding on the streets was a change for me (I usually ride on gravel roads) but it was pretty neat riding the 11 miles across town, instead of driving it.
Since I knew we were riding our bikes, I looked over the list of things needed and chose to bring forks and napkins. Boring.
I also looked to see what everyone else was bringing. One thing that intrigued me was something my friend Brenda listed, called “bean bag.” I had heard of this bean bag dish before, but couldn’t remember eating it. So I intentionally sought it out af the picnic. After a few bites, I knew I had to put it in the dinner rotation at home.
It turned out to be one of the simplest and tastiest chili recipes I have ever made. In fact, my daughter who “hates” soup (I bet she would like chocolate soup), even ate a bowl of it for dinner the other night. My recipe is a little bit different from Brenda’s, but I think it’s pretty darn close and tastes really good. And the best thing about this is that you cook everything in one pot, which means…fewer dishes!
Now when I say a recipe is simple, it’s very simple. I think about it like this, if it’s something that my husband or my dad could cook, it’s pretty easy. Not that they can’t do more complicated foods but more they don’t want to take the time to cook something that requires lots of chopping, or several different ingredients. They want to make things that are simple, quick and taste good. Probably one of the reasons grilling is high on their list!
The first thing you do is dice your onions. Then you cook them and some ground beef in your pot. Now I usually use a pretty lean ground beef so there isn’t much fat to drain. If you use an 80/20 blend, you’ll probably want to drain off the fat. Next, you get four cans of beans, any type of beans you want, and pour them AND the juice (don’t drain the juice) into the pot. And finally the secret ingredient….KC Masterpiece Original Barbeque Sauce. It’s loaded with all kinds of spices and smokiness so you don’t have to raid the spice rack to make this chili.
After 20-30 minutes of simmering, dinner is served! Or in my case, dinner was made for the next night (I do most of my meal prep on Sunday)! That means instead of spending the evening in the kitchen, we have more time to try out those bike lanes!
- 1 cup diced white onion
- 1 lb ground beef
- 4 cans beans (any kind, undrained)
- 1 cup KC Masterpiece Original Barbeque Sauce
- Cook the ground beef and onion in a large pot. Drain ground beef mixture if necessary.
- Add 4 cans of beans (including juice).
- Add 1 cup KC Masterpiece Original Barbeque Sauce
- Stir together then simmer for 20-30 minutes.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of KC Masterpiece. The opinions and text are all mine.
About Sarah
Sarah is a healthcare administrator, mother of one spunky 6-year old daughter and a travel blogger living in Wichita, Kansas. Join her as she tackles life in the midwest one to-do list at a time.
