![Crock-Pot Chili Colorado - Serve this delicious yet easy Crock-Pot Chili Colorado as a delicious burrito filling. OR add a couple of cans of pinto or kidney beans for a traditional chili with beans. Topped with cheese, sour cream & cilantro it is sure to please! [Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Sugar, Healthy and just 4 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving] #CrockPot #SlowCooker #Recipe #CrockPotLadies](https://crockpotladies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Crock-Pot-Chili-Colorado-2-150x150.jpg)
Serve this delicious yet easy Crock-Pot Chili Colorado as a delicious burrito filling. OR add a couple of cans of pinto or kidney beans for a traditional chili with beans. Topped with cheese, sour cream & cilantro it is sure to please!
Slow Cooker Chili Colorado
This recipe is totally a stand-by in my crock-pot arsenal and one I have cooked for years and years and years.
Growing up my dad didn’t cook all that often but when he did he made 1 of three dishes – spaghetti, navy beans and Indian Fry bread or Chili Colorado. And he made his Chili Colorado in the slow cooker.
This is my dad’s recipe.
This is just an easy crock-pot recipe to make and very versatile. You basically throw in some beef or pork stew meat, some onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and canned green chili’s and a few spices and let it simmer away in the crock all day long.
Save Money On Stew Meat – Often times stew meat is expensive at the grocery store often “on sale” for over $4.00 a pound! To save money on beef, pork or lamb stew meat watch your grocery stores weekly and monthly sales for great deals on whole roasts. Look for deals on beef chuck roasts, pork shoulder roasts and lamb shoulder roasts and cut them into bite sized (about 1 inch) cubes yourself. You can end up saving 1 to 2 dollars per pound by cutting up your own stew meat at home!
Then you assemble it into burritos. These are a wet burrito, the kind you eat with a fork. Not the kind of burrito that you pick up and eat. I mean I guess you can make them less wet if you want, however that is no fun at all.
Personally, I like to put a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese on top of the folded burrito and then spoon some of the hot juices from the Chili Colorado straight from the crock-pot over the cheese which melts it nice and gooey. Then add a dollop of sour cream and if I have it on hand a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.
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The bonus of this recipe is that not only does it make AMAZING burritos that rival anything at a decent Mexican restaurant it also can be turned into a really good bowl of chili just by adding a couple cans (drained and rinsed) of either pinto beans or kidney beans (or both).
I usually add some beans to any leftovers I have after making the wet burritos…that is IF there are any leftovers left.
Then I fill up a bowl of yummy chili and top again with some cheese and sour cream and diced onion and maybe serve it with a side of cornbread for sopping up all those yummy chili juices.
Special Diets
Gluten Free | Low Calorie | Low Carb | Low Fat | Low Sugar
This recipe for Crock-Pot Chili Colorado is Weight Watchers Friendly on the new Personal Points plan. You can see the WW personal points for this recipe here on the Weight Watchers website. Click here for MORE of our Weight Watchers Recipes
More Beef Crockpot Recipes You Will Love!
- Crock-Pot Cheeseburger Joes
- Slow Cooker Sweet Sloppy Joes
- Crock-Pot Mississippi Roast
- Slow Cooker Steak & Cherry Chili
- Crock-Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner
Crock-Pot Chili Colorado Recipe
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds Beef Stew Meat (or pork)
- 1 whole Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 43.5 ounces Canned Diced Tomatoes
- 27 ounces Canned Fire Roasted Green Chilies (such as Ortega brand)
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Chili Powder (optional)
Instructions
- Place your stew meat in the bottom of a 6-7 quart crock-pot.
- Dice up your onions small and mince up your garlic. Or use the jarred pre-minced garlic.
- Dump onion and garlic over the meat.
- Dump the tomatoes in (with their juices).
- Remove the whole green chilies from the can and roughly chop them up and add to the crock. Dump in any of those can juices too.
- Add your seasonings – cumin, salt, pepper and if you like it spicy some chili powder.
- Give everything a stir and cover and cook for 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Sounds great, I like the idea of adding beans to the left overs too. I don’t have a slow cooker, but I think I need to seriously consider getting one!
Thanks for stopping by Alicia, a slow cooker is a must! But of course I would say that! LOL
Thank you for sharing! My husband found a chuck roast in the freezer and instantly thought Chile Colorado. I’ve never made it so I quickly looked for a recipe. Yours was GREAT. I made a couple substitutions – fresh tomatoes (because the garden is going insane), tomato paste to thicken and 2 serrano peppers in place of the chiles. Put it in the crock pot and let it do it’s thing. By the time the boys got home from football practice the house smelled heavenly. Needless to say they devoured it but I did manage to save a little for my lunch đŸ™‚
Your additions sound amazing Lisa, this is one of my favorite recipes for sure and I am so glad your family enjoyed it too!
I threw this in the crockpot on high at lunch time & I have to say, for something so simple, this was excellent. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it Jamie!
Can it be thickened to a thick gravy
Hey Sly, while I have never thickend this recipe to a gravy I don’t see why you couldn’t do it. I am not sure what the best way to go about thickening it would be but I would probably start with a flour/water slurry and add at the end of the cooking time (oh the last 30 minutes or so). I would maybe mix up 1/4 to 1/2 cup of all purpose flour with double water (so 1/2 to 1 cup cold water), mix that up until there is no lumps and stir that into the slow cooker and let it cook the last 30 minutes or so.
If you want to add a corn flavor (I do this with regular bean type chilis) use masa harina instead of flour. Masa harina is a corn flour and adds some great flavor!
I like to brown meat before placing it in the slow cooker. It adds color and flavor. If you dust the cubes lightly with flour before browning, the chili should thicken up a little on its own.
I agree Buffalo Bob, browning the meat adds some wonderful flavor. You can indeed do that in this recipe. My father, on the other hand, didn’t brown the meat in his recipe so I present it the way he made it. But it is open to new ideas and innovations. MOST of our readers strongly dislike the added step of browning the meat. It is refreshing to have someone say it loud and proud because it really does add a nice depth of flavor!