Slow-Cooker Black Bean and Zucchini Chili

Had checked this recipe out and while it looked good at first blush, it was surprising to see no mention of browning the ground beef, which is very necessary in slow cooking to drain off excess grease and bring out flavor. I kept all the basic ingredients but made the following changes: * Upped the tomato paste quantity to a full 6 oz. can--seemed silly to use so little for such a large recipe--and added the black beans straight from the can with the liquid (did not drain or rinse). Also used regular diced tomatoes. (As some other people have commented, the fire-roasted variety is rather rare.) * Substituted the chili powder, oregano, salt and black pepper with two packets of McCormick Chili Seasoning Mix (available in Mild, Regular and Hot --also available from French's). The garlic cloves I substituted with 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. Got thumbs up from two friends with this modded version. Next time I am going to try ground turkey. It's certainly a lot cheaper than ground beef.

I cannot get fire-roasted tomatoes where I live, so I used plain diced and found the recipe lacked flavor. Not bad, but I'll probably chose a different chili recipe next time. Reviewed on my blog: http://mmmsterdam.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/slow-cooker-black-bean-and-zucchini-chili/

Made this in a Dutch oven on the stove top and used squash in addition to the zucchini. Sautéed veggies after browning the ground beef, then combined everything to cook for a few hours. Yum!

I agree with Orangerunner that as far as consistency of the beef traditional methods of making chili are better ("chili for a crowd", a Real Simple recipe, is fantastic). However, if you need to slow cook chili for practical reason, I think this was pretty good.

The flavor was ok, but the texture of the ground beef was awful. I have never "slow cooked" ground beef and never will again. So sorry to say, my family really did not like it.

A very tasty, and simple recipe! Next time around, I'll be adding 2 more cloves of garlic and 2 more tablespoons of chili powder, as there wasn't quite enough umpf for our tastes. The zucchini was a nice touch. I also used plain yogurt rather than sour cream.