Cheat your way to PERFECT CHILLI (Sainsbury's American Style Chilli con Carne Sauce)

Member Name: sandrabarber

Product:	Sainsbury's American Style Chilli con Carne Sauce
Date:	16/09/03 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: delicious, reasonably priced, very easy

Disadvantages: not as cheap as making your own

Recently my mate and I were doing the Edinburgh Festival. We were paying an arm and a leg for an apartment in the heart of the old town and we'd spent over two hundred quid each on show tickets alone, so we made a pact to take advantage of the kitchen instead of eating out at yet more vast expense. Trouble was, we didn't have a lot of time to spend peeling and chopping in our hectic schedule and the weather was far too hot to stand over a stove for hours on end anyway. So, at the instigation of my mate who promised I wouldn't get poisoned, we bought some jars. The first night I made chilli con carne with Sainsbury's American Style Chilli con Carne Sauce. It was absolutely delicious.

The sauce comes in both medium and hot varieties and costs about £1.25 for 460 grammes (though it's recently had 25% off in my local store). We chose the hot one.

In the jar, the sauce looks rather one dimensional, as if it's just a red-brown tomato sauce and nothing more. Open it up, however, and it's generously padded with kidney beans, red peppers and jalapenos.

It smells strongly and richly of tomatoes, spices and chilli, and has a lovely thick consistency that is still easy to pour.

Simply fry your mince then add it to the sauce and simmer for 20 minutes on the hob, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, mmn and aah as the gorgeous spicy smell fills your kitchen and sets your stomach rumbling.

I can honestly say that this sauce produces the best-tasting chilli I've ever had. It's hot but not tongue-lacerating, and despite the spiciness you can taste every other ingredient in there. The kidney beans are still nice and firm, the finely chopped peppers taste fresh and the jalapenos add a tantalizing zing to the whole affair. It tastes like it's been made with proper vine tomatoes and fresh garlic too.

It is a very mouthwatering sauce that's better than any I've ever made or had in any pub/b
ar/restaurant.

It's also suitable for vegetarians and contains less than one per cent fat.

The 'how to cook' suggests adding 500g mince to the jar, but I think you'd need 2 jars for that amount of meat. We made ours with 250g mince and a fair few mushrooms and it was perfect.

I've since served this sauce to 6 other people and all complimented me on my best ever chilli. (And yes, I did own up to the cheat)

Since discovering this sauce I've vowed never to slave over a chopping board again and I've stocked up on several of both the hot and medium varieties to serve to friends.

Very highly recommended as a quality, authentic-tasting product.

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