Over the Top Chili and Poppers

So ... on Super Bowl Sunday, after my famous Super Sunday Fun Run B-Race I made some food for us to eat while watching the game.

Of course, you know I had to make it outside on one (or more) of my grills.

It's become a tradition that I make Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers, and of course my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) demanded that I do it again.

So, that was a no-brainer. Happy Wife. Happy Life. (nothing rhymes with husband)

Lately, I've seen various posts on online BBQ forums of people doing "Over the Top" Chili.

And ... until this recent trend, I had never heard of such a thing.

But, it is pretty simple, and I thought I'd give that a try as well.

So, the "Over the Top" concept is that in a cast-iron pot, you mix together all the chili ingredients other than the meat.

Then, you place some sort of rack over the pot, and place a ball of seasoned ground meat on top of that.

I just used regular 80 / 20 ground chuck.

You let the meat cook over 2 or 3 hours while the mixture below simmers and gets the drippings from the meat.

When the meat is done (140 F or so), crumble it up and put it in the pot with the rest of the chili.

Let it cook a little longer. I ended up adding more liquid in the form of SheppyBrew X-Mas Ale.

It turned out delicious. We had way more food for a 4-person Super Bowl party realistically needs, and I think I'm really the only one who had more than a taste of this, but I really enjoyed it and plan to make it again at some point.

I was able to eat this for lunch several days in a row.

The poppers also turned out great.

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