If you are looking for an interesting game day meal look no further. Over the top chili is chili cooked on the smoker with a giant meatball cooking above it dripping into the chili. The smoked meat from the meatball when added to the chili mix makes for some amazingly flavorful chili that you will want to make again and again.
Chili has always been one of my favorite meals to have in the fall on a Sunday afternoon while watching football. When I saw the over the top cooking style for chili, I had to give it a try and it did not disappoint. This is another recipe where you can easily put your own spin on it. I used the chili recipe I always make and just cooked the ground beef that I typically add above the rest of the chili ingredients and the flavor was out of this world. This meal can be cooked on a smoker or a grill. If you use a grill just cook this on indirect heat and if you want to add a little smoky flavor you can always purchase a smoke box to use in your grill, which will allow you to burn wood chips.
Cooking Basics
The prep work for this is pretty simple. You will need to chop up the vegetables that you will have in your chili, saute them, and mix the ingredients together in an aluminum pan or something that can handle being on the smoker or grill.
Once this is done, you will then make a huge meatball out of any of the ground meat you plan to use and throw on some seasoning to the outside of it. You will need a wire rack that you can place the meatball on and put that on top of your cooking dish for the chili.
When you are ready to cook the chili, you will want to preheat your smoker to 225. I like to use hickory for this meal but I have heard apple or cherry also gives it a nice flavor. The chili and the meatball will cook on the smoker until the meatball reaches an internal temperature of 155. At this point, you will remove the meatball, chop it up and then mix it in with the rest of the chili mix. Once this is done, you will continue to cook for another hour or two to let the flavors meld together. At that point you can remove the chili, top it with whatever your favorite toppings are and dig in.
Final Thoughts
This meal is great for leftovers. I found it had even more flavor the next day when I warmed the leftovers up than on the day I made it.
- Alternatives - I love recipes that you can use over and over again and change up to try out different flavors. This is definitely one of those recipes.
- Vegetables - I keep my chili pretty mild so my kids will eat it but you can choose to kick it up a notch and add some jalapenos, or habeneros to give it a little heat.
- Seasoning - I just use chili seasoning in this recipe but if you have your own blend you like to use, feel free to substitute. I just put a little salt and pepper on the meatball but some people prefer to add some of the chili seasoning in with the mix or using a seasoning for burgers in the mix as well so feel free to experiment.
- Meat - I just used ground beef the first time I tried this out. I would like to try adding some bacon into the meatball next time to see how that adds to the taste. I have also seen some people use breakfast sausage or portk sausage to the meatball mix.
This is like many other meals that are cooked on a grill or smoker - the meat has to cook to a certian internal temperature rather than for a specific amount of time. If you do not already one on, I highly recommend getting a decent thermometer for these occassions. I just recently purchased an InkBird Wifi thermometer and I love it. There is an app on the phone that links to the thermometer where you can set the desired temperature and when that temperature is reached, the alarm will go off. It proved incredibly useful for this recipe so that I could start the chili first thing in the afternoon and not miss a single play of the football game. It is so much easier than having to go out and check the temperature constantly. I have included a link below in case anyone is interested.
If any of you decide to get creative, please leave a comment letting me know what variations you tried and how it turned out either on this post or any of the social media channels I have set up. I would love to hear about it.
Recipe
Recipe Information
- Prep Time: 20 Minutes
- Cook Time: 4 Hour
- Rest Time: 0 Minutes
- Total Time: 4 Hour 20 Minutes
- Servings: 8
- Category: Main Dish
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 lb Kelbasa
- 1 1/2 lb Ground Beef
- 1 Can Dark Red Kidney Beans
- 1 Can Light Red Kidney Beans
- 1 Can Rotel
- 1 Can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Onion
- 1 Red Pepper
- 12 oz Fresh Sliced Mushrooms
- 2 Pkg Chili Seasoning
- 1 20oz Can Tomato Sauce
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker or grill to 225 degrees (If smoking hickory, apple, or cherry are good wood choices)
- Chop up onion, red pepper, and kelbasa
- Put oil in pan and toss in onion, red pepper, and mushrooms to saute for 6 - 7 minutes
- Add sauted vegetables to cooking pan along with kelbasa, rotel, diced tomatos, tomato sauce and chili seasoning and mix well
- Form hamburger into a giant oval meatball and season with salt and pepper (or your own favorite seasonings for burger)
- Place meatball on wire rack and place wire rack on top of cook pot
- Put cook pot in smoker and let cook until internal temperature of the meatball reaches 155 degrees (about 2 hours)
- Remove meatball and chop up the meat and mix into the chili mix.
- Let cook for another hour or two on the smoker
- Serve and enjoy!