Saute in the bottom of a large pot heated with oil:
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds of meat (any kind!) chopped small (the more meat the merrier, if you don’t have meat, use meat bones, if you don’t have meat bones, put in a whole chicken cut in eighths, rinsed)
Turn off fire under the pot and add to the pot:
6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
¼ cup red kidney beans (soak in water first for 2-3 hours, then rinse thoroughly and add to pot)
¼ cup barley (soak in water first for 2-3 hours, then rinse thoroughly and add to pot)
Mix all of the above with the onions, garlic and meat then add to the pot:
½ cup of ketchup (or one very large squirt right into the pot, no measuring necessary!)
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Paprika
Salt (plenty! I’m not giving a measurement because it depends on your taste)
Mix all of the above spices into the Cholent, add a little more water than just to cover all the contents in the pot, bring it to a rolling boil and then immediately lower the flame to low so there’s just a very slight bubble.
Place a blech (enter blech in search box on this website for more details) under the pot before Shabbos and allow to simmer until Shabbos lunch when you serve it. Remember that cooking a delicious Cholent takes trial and error, but you will master it, just persevere... Shabbos comes along every week.
Wishing you a happy, peaceful and delicious-Cholent Shabbos!