1 to 2 lbs ground beef ( we usually use about a pound of meat for the 3 of us)
Add 1/2 to 1 cup water. If you put in too much it's OK as you can reduce it by simmering the chili longer...
Place on a medium - high burner and start cooking. You must use a fork to break the meat down into small crumb sized pieces before it browns or you will end up with what I call burger worms... little pieces of meat that look like worms.
Keep smashing it with the fork until it looks like this....
Then continue cooking until the meat is completely brown...
Then add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper and one to two Tablespoons of chili powder (depending on how spicy you want the chili) These amounts are what we use in our 1 pound of meat so double if you are using closer to two pounds of meat.
After every addition of items stir well. Now add 1/2 to 1 cup of ketchup; again this is a preference and we add about 3/4 cup ketchup to our pound of meat.
Stir it well.
Now cover it and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. The time will vary depending on how much water you added. If it's too thin you will want to simmer it longer than if it's about right for topping hot dogs at this point.
Now I have also added about 1/4 cup yellow mustard to the mix when I add the ketchup but today we are were out of mustard.
After this has simmered for at least 30 minutes you can boil some hot dogs; chop up some onion and pull out some chopped pickles or chow chow and prepare to eat some yummy chili-dogs. I'll add some pictures or prepared hot-dogs later when we make some up.
