Pumpkin Chili. Hear me out!

A neighbor recently told me she had been gifted some pumpkin chili and that it was the most amazing chili she had ever had. She was also sure the recipe came from All Recipes. Without having to do much search, I found it. Here is a link to the Pumpkin Chili recipe.

It's pretty straight forward. I thought I would whip it up in the crockpot. Here's how I did it followed by what I will do differently next time.

So you have your ingredients:

* 2 pounds ground beef (I used a package of ground turkey. I think it's 1 and 1/3 lb)
* 1 large onion, diced (I only used half. Not a fan of onions. Just not)
* 1 green bell pepper, diced (I used orange. I'm a colorist.)
* 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained (Only had one can of kidney beans and one can of black beans, rinsed and drained.)
* 1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice (Get this: I used a bottle of spaghetti sauce and an addition jar and half of water.)
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can tomato sauce (Didn't have this. Hence the spaghetti sauce and water.)
* 1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice (did that)
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (used an entire can. Can't see the point of opening up that can and using only 1/2 cup)
* 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I reduced this to probably 1/2 tablespoon thinking it would be too powerful. Wrong.)
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/4 cup white sugar

I browned the meat in some olive oil and minced garlic first.

Originally, I put all of this into the smaller crockpot, the 4 qt. Then I saw that it was too small so I transferred it all to my 6 qt. Soooo much better. It was a little after 10 by the time I finally got it all together. By 4PM the house smelled amazing and I really wanted to try it. My husband was working and I knew the kids wouldn't touch it so I started dinner whenever I damn well felt like it!

Flickr by Teo

It was good. It was not mind blowing and I think I know a few reasons why. The original recipe is not set up for a slowcooker. It's created to be made in a big pan on the stove for over an hour then ready.

The bell pepper was still too crunchy: I didn't let it cook long enough. Next time I will get it started much earlier in the morning.

There was no pumpkin flavor at all even with the entire can of pumpkin. I will not lower the amount of pumpkin spice next time. In fact, I may increase it. Cooking in slow cookers is just different. It's more lenient on too much spice because it has allllll day to cook them off, basically. I could just be making that up. Who knows.

I don't know who owns this picture, or this pumpkin, but it is fantastic! 

I think I might break down and get that Fire Engine Red Dutch Oven from Costco and just bear the ridicule of having to listen to my husband giggle every time I say Dutch Oven and make this sans slow cooker next time, and see what comes of it.