Picture your family and friends around your TV, watching holiday football and bowl games. What a fun way to spend a holiday afternoon or evening.

Let’s take your slow cooker chili and feature it tonight during the game.

Make the chili pot the star of your buffet table. How about a take on sort of a Spanish chili?

My sister is going on a school trip April 2020 to Barcelona and Paris.

This fiesta chili was inspired by my sister Hannah and her trip. It’s a spin on your average chili yet with a Spanish party flair. Served with rice, over pasta, or if you dip your favorite crusty bread in the bowl, this hearty fiesta chili with a tiny kick will sit well with family and friends and the game you plan to watch.

Now, for the traditional chili. Not forgetting those who love the traditional ground beef, turkey or chicken chili with beans, peppers, onions and some chili spices, here you go.

This traditional chili is the kind of chili at the cook-offs, served from the slow cooker. It’s all good. Garnishes for this chili? How about guacamole, fried potato sticks, a spoon of homemade potato salad, shredded lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes, sour cream, chives and any type of cheese you like.

Wash out your slow cooker and fill either chili to the top. You decide which chili. You decide toppings.

You can also switch out the chorizo, pork or beef and use lean ground chicken or turkey in either recipe.

A Fiesta Bowl of Chili

1 pound of coarsely ground pork

1 pound of fresh Spanish chorizo sausage, without casing (I really like D’Artagnan’s pork to grind my own chorizo sausage.)

3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1 red onion, coarsely chopped

1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 red chili pepper, finely diced and seeds removed if desired

1 28-ounce can of crushed San Marsano tomatoes

1 15-ounce can of organic garbanzo beans in liquid and salt added

1 fresh large bay leaf

1 tablespoon of sweet Spanish smoked paprika

1½ teaspoons of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of dry oregano

1½ cups of water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Brown chorizo and pork in a skillet or medium-sized Dutch oven with the olive oil. Remove the pork and chorizo from the cooking vessel onto a plate and leave the flavorful oil in the vessel.

Add vegetables, garlic and chili pepper into the pan and saute until the vegetables are softened. Add your spices and saute them for another minute until fragrant.

Add the meat back into the pan. Put in the tomatoes and garbanzo beans with their liquid. Add water into the tomato can to clean out the can of all sauce. Add your bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the Dutch oven with aluminum foil and then the lid to keep all liquid in. Place vessel into your oven for approximately two hours until meat is tender and sauce is reduced.

Once the chili is done, some oil will rise to the surface from the chorizo. Mix the oil into the chili. It’s flavor.

Remove the bay leaf. Taste for seasoning such as salt. Serve in large bowls over rice and top as desired.

Note: You can finish this chili off with a fried egg or two and freshly chopped parsley. I like frying some potato sticks fresh to top our family’s bowls.

Traditional Tex-Mex Chili

2 pounds of ground beef

1¾ cup of beef broth

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 tablespoons masa harina (corn meal) mixed with ¼ cup of water

½ teaspoon of dried oregano

½ teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon of light brown sugar

2 tablespoons of chili powder

1 jalapeño, small dice (seeds out, optional)

1 28-ounce can of crushed San Marsano tomatoes

1 sweet onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 red bell pepper, chopped to your liking

1 15-ounce can of dark kidney beans with their liquid

Dash of Tabasco sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Brown beef in a skillet or medium-sized Dutch oven with the olive oil.

Remove the ground beef from the cooking vessel onto a plate and leave the flavorful oil in the vessel. Add onions, red pepper, jalapeño and garlic into the Dutch oven and saute until the vegetables are softened. Add your dry spices and saute them for another minute until fragrant. Add the meat back into the pan. Add your broth and tomatoes. Add a tiny bit of water into the tomato can to clean out the can of all sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the Dutch oven with aluminum foil and then the lid to keep all liquid in. Place vessel into your oven for approximately 1½ hours until meat is tender and sauce is reduced.

Add in your beans and liquid and the masa harina creamy paste. Bake another half of an hour.

Taste for seasoning and add salt as needed. Serve in large bowls, topped with your favorite chili fixings.

Sarah Schweitzer is a dual-certified in culinary arts and baking & pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. She is a line cook for Executive Chef David Crespo at “Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine” in the new Downtown Allentown Market opening Thursday. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.