Chili Beans, well, not quite, but Yum Yum Yum!

First, a little back story. About 20 years ago, my wife, Mary Ann, attended an annual BBQ for her company. She asked the guys, who show up around 7 AM to do the cooking for about 100 people or help out, if they wanted her to cook them breakfast. They said "duh!" So, she and I went out to the BBQ site to help out. I asked What can I do? They said, well someone needs to heat up the beans. I said, Great. Where are they? One of the guys said, Here are 4 cans of chili, open them up, and then heat them up. I said, That's it? He said, What's so hard, you just heat them up. Well, I said, That will not do. So, I left the BBQ site and went shopping. The rest is history. The following recipe has been used for many a party and BBQ. While not truly Chili, these beans, as I call them, significantly satisfy, again and again.

First, there is some cooking that must occur to make this recipe work. There is no getting around that, but it is not too hard. Also, the amounts I cite here are for 70 to 80 people. Once you have made these a few times, you can improvise. Do it the first time for a large group.

If you are starting with a small group, that is fine, but use the volume of the first ingredient as your guide (that is - a single can of the Stagg's Country Brand Chili with Beans (6 lb, 12 oz) is needed with a reduced volume of the other beans and ingredients for 15 to 20 people and so on) depending upon appetites. The 6 lb. 12 oz. can is the big can you can pickup at Smart and Final in Petaluma.  Generally, if you follow the recommended number of servings on the can will be very close.  

So, here we go for 70 people. You will need the following:

3 - 6 lb.-12 oz. cans of Stagg's Country Brand Beans with Chili and Beans

2 - 3 lb.-7 oz. cans of Bush's Bake Beans - original  (make sure you remove bacon chunks)

27 - 15 oz. cans of Stagg's Steak House Reserve Chili with Beans

3 - packages of Hillshire or another brand (however, no spices added) of Kielbasa sausage

4 - red onions (do not use white or yellow onions and definitely not an onion sweeter than the red ones.)

So, here we go for 20 people.  You will need the following:

2 - 15 oz. cans of Bush's Bake Beans - original (make sure you remove  bacon chunks)

10 - 15 oz. cans of Stagg's Steak House Reserve Chili with Beans

1 - packages of Hillshire or another brand (however, no spices added) of Kielbasa sausage

1/2 - red onions (do not use white or yellow onions and definitely not an onion sweeter than the red ones.)

Before we talk about the preparation, let's talk about heating up the beans. For years, I would put all of this stuff in a pot and then turn on the gas to heat. Each and every time, the beans on the bottom would burn and worse than that take two days to clean up. So, a friend taught me this great trick. You will need two pots. One big enough to handle the volume of beans, and another that can handle the bean pot itself. In other words, we are creating a double boiler. Make sure that the handles of the bean pot are big enough so that when the bean pot is inserted into the larger pot, the handles are sitting on the rim of the big pot. You need to figure out how much water to put in the outside pot.  Measure the distrance that the inside pot will take up and fill the larger pot about 1-2 inches higher.  At this point, I load the inside bean pot with all of the canned beans.  Next, put the two pots together.  Be carefull to make sure the water in the larger pot does not overflow.  You should have the water level about 4 inches below the rim of the larger pot.  That way, when the water boils, the overflow is minimal. Once you start heating the beans, check the pot from time to time and stir the beans making sure the ones on the bottom are lifted to the top of the pot. For the 70 servings receipe, it should take about 2 hours for the beans to reach the right temperature. But, then, tasting them from time to time is half the fun. I know all of the above sounds complicated, but don't worry.  ONce you have done this process once, you will be a pro.  Okay, enough with the preparation, let's get to putting the ingredients together.

Step 1 - In the bean pot, open the cans and put in all of the types of beans. Make sure to not include the pieces of bacon that Bush puts in each can of their beans. It is not nice to come across that while eating the finished beans.

Step 2 - Slice and chop up the Kielbasa sausage. You should have nice small but not tiny pieces. Put the chopped sausage in a medium sized saute pan and cook until the edges are slightly brown. Do not over cook or completely brown. Dump everything in the saute pan into the bean pot.

Step 3 - Finely chop up the onions into small, but not tiny pieces. Also, do not use a food processor for this step. The food processor tends to make the onion pieces too small and the onions can be mushy. When you eat these beans and bite into the onion you want a little crispness in the bite. It's like "el dente" for pasta. Cook the onions, in the same pan as you did the sausage, until just translucent. Dump everything in the sautee pan into the bean pot.

Step 4 - Stir the beans well. Making sure that everything gets Incorporated well.

Step 5 - Heat the beans. The water must come to a boil and stay there for about 2 hours (70 serving receipe). If you are able to use hot water when you fill the larger pot, the time to heat will be shorter. Taste often and stir when you do. You will know, when the beans are hot enough to serve.

Now, I serve right from the pot. But, you can transfer them to a smaller container or other serving container. But, do so only when you are ready to go. Cold beans are not as tasty.

Good luck and of course, good eating. Yum Yum Yum.

P.S. I have included a picture of the pot I made today as a side for a BBQ Rib dinner tonight. This pot will serve about 70 people. it depends upon their appetites.