In my old Hawaii cookbooks I came across a recipe for ‘Ono Chili’ only it didn’t give actual measurements for the ingredients! ~sigh~ so I cobbled together my own version and you know what – no kidding, this is some ONOLICIOUS chili! (I’m sure using three meats has a lot to do with it…)

ingredients:
4 slices of bacon
1 Portuguese Sausage
1 pound ground beef
3 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper
1 28 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Hold on to your heart attacks – 3 different kinds of meat? Yes. Chop the bacon into small pieces – (I like to do this raw so I don’t have to chop it afterwards – up to you) cook in a large stock pot until crispy, set aside and drain.

Drain off the fat from the pot, then in the same stock pot, brown up the Portuguese sausage – this is a Hawaiian staple and will add so much flavor. Brown the Portuguese sausage, then drain and set that aside.

Drain the stock pot of excess fat AGAIN, then go ahead and brown the ground beef until no longer pink. set THAT aside – there’s a lot of setting aside going on here.

Drain off the excess fat from the pot just one more time. Add the celery, onion and bell pepper. Cook until soft.

In a small bowl combine all the seasonings so you can just throw them in evenly later: bay leaves salt, pepper, chili powder, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, stir together and then set aside.

To the onion mixture add the stewed tomatoes, kidney beans and tomato sauce. Stir.

Add the seasonings you’ve mixed together, as well as the three meats: bacon, Portuguese sausage and ground beef. You can see how it’s starting to get some really nice flavor combinations going already. Cook on a low simmer for 1 hour.

I usually like to make recipes simpler to follow, but all these steps lead to a really fantastic tasting chili that is well worth the chopping and setting aside – great for cool summer nights!