Chilli con carne recipe & questions

claire21

i never knew you could do it with baked beans, so will try that.

spike7451

Well I had a ccok-off today & I mad two dishes,I bought a tin of Asda Kidney Beans in a chili sauce,add that to water then half a sachet of Colemans Chilli Con Carne sauce mix.I then added half of the beef,onion & carrots that I'd previously fried off (the other half went to make a batch of Beef in Ale stew) along with mushrooms,a couple of tomato's that were just starting to go soft,a diced pepper & let it simmer.

poodledoodledoo

Hi folks
I'm an OS convert and my latest mission is to save money on hubby's work lunches. He's a big fan of those tins of branded Chilli and pouches of microwavable rice but they are hideously expensive for what they are so I've decided to make my own and freeze (had a really good dig through the MSE archives for info on bulk cooking and freezing ).
I have 3 questions though which I'm sure somebody will be able to answer for me-

1. If you make a chilli-con-carne for freezing, is it OK to add tins of baked or red kidney beans to the mixture (I know the latter can cause issues if cooked incorrectly)? I will effectively be reheating them after defrosting my sauce won't I?

2. At what stage should you freeze the sauce i.e how long should I leave it to cool before freezing? Should I leave it to go stone cold or put in the freezer sooner?

3. If I freeze a portion of plain, boiled rice, it will inevitably defrost to some extent before hubby gets to reheat it (no freezer at work). Is this likely to be a problem? I guess it would be out of the fridge for roughly 5/6 hours?

Thanks in advance for any advice you lovely people are able to give me.

Yours,
Novice Cook

katieowl_2

1) Tinned beans are already cooked through, which would be the issue. so not a problem here.

2) Should be cold before going in the freezer. IIRC you are not supposed to leave stuff unrefrigerated for more than two hours, but you could bung it in the fridge to go cold after then, before freezing it

3) Cooked rice is not supposed to be left sitting around at room temperature. It's a real hazard apparently. I would have thought if he took a box of rice from the freezer (frozen) and kept it in a cool bag it would be fine?

Kate

Mrs_Chip

Hi

1) Yes, this will be perfectly fine, I add the tinned beans to the chilli during cooking, about 15 mins before it's done.

2) Cool as quickly as possible (cover and leave in the coldest place, I put mine in the porch). I would leave till cold then freeze, but you could refridgerate before if you wanted to.

3) Should be ok, but if you want to be on the safe side get one of those insulated lunch packs and put the frozen chilli and rice in it - should stay frozen until required.

These will be much nicer than any packet stuff!

Mrs_Chip

lol - there you go - two for the price of one!

katieowl_2

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

lol - there you go - two for the price of one!

LOL you even laid it out the same!

Kate

poodledoodledoo

Am I right in thinking then that it would be best to reheat (microwave) both sauce and rice from frozen then rather than allowing either to defrost before heating?

I think if I was to reheat this at home I would probably do the rice from frozen but defrost the sauce in the fridge? Is cooking from frozen safer?

Sorry, I really am an idiot at this kind of stuff

katieowl_2

I'd be inclined to defrost the chilli, but do the rice from frozen. You can defrost the chilli in the microwave, but it's better if it's a bit soft before you blast it, otherwise there's a chance it won't heat through properly.

Kate

poodledoodledoo

Actually, the chilli will probably defrost itself in the time it takes to get from freezer to microwave won't it? Would be worried about it not heating properly in the middle from frozen.
Right, I'm going to treat my OH to a cool bag
Thanks ladies