Four Meat Chili Magic

Bacon, spareribs, hamburger, and Chorizo.  How can you go wrong?  What an amazing Keto idea!  This recipe is inspired by Maria Emerich’s Slow Cooker Short Rib and Chorizo Stew from her cook book The 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse.  I can’t follow a recipe to save my life, so this is my take on it.  It turned out yummy and I want to write it down before I forget how I made it, so I can do it again.  It is obviously very meat heavy.  My husband and I ate it over cooked spaghetti squash which was delicious.  My kids loved it on hamburger buns like a sloppy joes (they are obviously not eating low carb).

• 2 pack of Costco center cut bacon
• 4 pounds hamburger (I used diet lean with only 7% fat)
• 2 pounds uncooked chorizo without casings (or 2 packages)
• 2 onions chopped

Fry up a skillet full of bacon and leave the bacon grease in the pan when you remove the cooked bacon.  Then fry up hamburger & chorizo and two chopped onions in the left-over bacon grease.  I cooked the rest of the two packages of bacon on a parchment covered jelly roll pan in the oven for 40 minutes.  Next time I may cook all of it in the oven and save the grease, then fry up the hamburger and chorizo in a dollop of the grease.  I fried the meats up the night before and stored them in the fridge, but you could do them on the same day without a problem.  You could get the short ribs going in the instant pot and then fry your meats.

• 2 lbs bone in pork short ribs
• 3 cans chopped Tomatoes
• 2 small cans green chili peppers hot
• 1 ½  cups beef bone broth (I just used left over broth from cooking a roast that I had in the freezer).
• 2 teaspoons garlic
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon paprika (I used smoked)
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Place rack in Instant Pot.  Pour beef broth in bottom.  Mix dry spices and rub onto both sides of the ribs.  Place ribs on top of the rack.  Add canned tomatoes and chili peppers on top of ribs.  Cook in Instant pot for 30 minutes on high pressure.  Let pressure release naturally. 

Scrape tomatoes and peppers off cooked ribs and keep them in the pot.  Lift out ribs via the rack and set on platter or in big bowl (something that will catch the sauces that run off so you can add them back in to the pot).  Let cool until cool enough to handle safely.  Remove the meat from the bones and shred it. 

Add cooked hamburger and chorizo, and all remaining juices back into the Instant Pot.  Cook for 30 minutes.  While its cooking slice up all the cooked bacon into chunks.  Taste the flavor of the meat mixture to see if the flavor needs something.  I added quite a bit more salt and garlic powder.
 
Add chopped bacon and shredded boneless pork to the mixture in the Instant Pot.  Mix well.  Set Instant Pot to slow cook and cook for 4-6 hours.  You could also just do one more 30-minute round on high pressure if you are rushed for time.  The flavor I ended up with after slow cooked for 6 hours was terrific, but I imagine the flavor was good long before that.

Some things we would like to try with this meat and sauce base:

• Shepherd’s pie (it would work for low or high carb version)
• Lasagna (it would work for low or high carb version)
• Chili of any variety
• A Chili vegetable stew:  I am going to sauté an onion, chopped fresh garlic, sliced celery, turnip cubes and chopped zucchini.  I believe I may add cooked spaghetti squash and will add more tomato products and beef broth.