Pork and Pumpkin Harvest Chili

This is a chili that smells like a bonfire in October. Tender chunks of pork shoulder braise with pure pumpkin, warm spices, and just a whisper of pumpkin pie spice — enough to signal "autumn" without ever tipping into dessert. The pumpkin does the quiet work here: it thickens the pot into something velvety and lends an earthy, gentle sweetness that plays beautifully against the savory pork and smoky paprika. A pinch of brown sugar at the end rounds it all off. It's cozy, a little unexpected, and exactly the pot you want simmering when the leaves turn and someone lights the firepit — the chili that wins over the skeptics who think pumpkin belongs only in pie.

Toasted pepitas and a dollop of sour cream lean into the harvest theme; cornbread is a natural.

Butternut squash purée subs for pumpkin. Keep the pumpkin pie spice restrained — a little goes a long way. Ground pork or turkey works if you don't want to cube shoulder. Even better the next day.