Chili What ya got ?

[mnoble485]

If this has been covered before just point the way. The wife and I were talking about cooking up a pot for New Years Day. This led to the "beans or no beans, beer or no beer and if beer what kind, meat of course but what kind? Not much into venison or other game. Would love to do a double batch and freeze half if doable.

Thanks,
Mike

[Chance Legstrong]

Couple of thoughts:

1. Meat- only beef (assuming we're talking red) Ground Chuck. 80-85%(max)
coarse grind. have your meat counter coarse grind some chuck shoulders
do NOT use "steak" meat. its' silly and makes you look pretentious.
beer is only used to break down cheap meat. drink a nice porter with your bowl!
2. Beans- kidney. i occasionally will drop in some black to mix it up
3. veggies? - yes rough chopped jalapenos. (seeds- chefs choice- know your audience)

I like browning my meat with Williams chili seasoning. KC product and consistent in flavor.

fresh avocado slices over the top. maybe a sprinkle of Monterrey cheese.
dash of Franks or Worcestershire sauce

[robin3mj]

I like using 85/15 beef in my chili (though I use 80/20 for burgers so that will do if it’s all I have).
Anything leaner seems a little dry to me.

Beer- darker is better but not sweet like porter.
Splash of red wine.
tomatoes
Red beans
Green peppers
Habanero peppers
Roasted red peppers- canned is fine
celery
onion
Dark chocolate shavings or cocoa- just a pinch
Splash of maple syrup
Jerk seasoning
Misc other spices- cumin, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, garlic powder
I typically use McCormick’s chili mix- usually 1 packet regular and 1 packet hot
Sometimes throw in sausage if it will all be consumed in one day- I find that if kept longer, the sausage will tend to dominate

Fresh bread

It sounds weird altogether, but when I put the word out that I’m making chili, people tend to show up and eat it.

Debating whether to cook this for football on Monday- other options are homemade pizza or my first stab at pulled pork

[Too Tall]

Below is Tolberts Simple Bowl of Red chili. There is nothing better.
If you want beans, cook kidney beans with olive oil and salt and serve them on the side. I like that.
Make this hotter the dickens. Anyone who has an appreciation for this sort of fare will thank you.
*The kidney suet is really not necessary . *I toast and grind the cumin.

Ingredients:

3 pounds lean beef
1/8 pound rendered beef kidney suet (if you want to go for it)
1 teaspoon each oregano, cumin powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco
3 tablespoons chile powder (optional)
4 hot chile peppers
At least two chopped cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons masa harina, cornmeal, or flour (optional)*

* The masa adds a subtle, tamale-like taste, but it also thickens the chili.



Preparation:

Sear beef in a large soup pot or cast-iron Dutch oven. You may need a little oil to prevent the meat from sticking. When the meat is all gray, add suet and chile peppers and about two inches of liquid (you can use water, I use beer). Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add spices and garlic, bring just to boil; lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes. NOTE: Add more liquid only to keep the mix from burning. Skim off as much grease as you can, and add masa harina. Simmer for another 30 minutes. Taste and adjust spices if necessary.

This is a spicy chili, so leave out some of the spicy stuff in the beginning if you have a tender tongue. At this point, I refrigerate the chili overnight which allows the chili to mellow and you can skim off all the grease.

[Chasbo]

Two kinds depending on what I feel like. Chicken or beef.

Beef
2lbs cubed beef seared
1 onion
small red beans
diced tomatoes
1 bottle dark ale
3 jalapenos
spice mix (cayenne, chili powder, cumin, cinnimon, black pepper, paprika and salt)

Sear the beef and saute the onions and peppers and then combine in a crock pot with everything else and simmer for 4 hours or until the beef starts coming apart.
Don't forget to cook a few extra pieces of the beef and share them with your cattle dog.

Chicken
Chicken thighs and breasts rubbed with spice mix and baked until done
corn
black beans
onion
garlic
tomatoes
jalapenos
1 bottle golden ale
Spice mix (cumin, chili powder, cinnimon, salt and pepper)

After chicken is done, let it cool and then shred it (remove skin and feed it to your cattle dog who has been very patient so far). Saute onions, corn and jalapenos. Combine everything in a crock pot and simmer for several hours.

[sonny]

my favorite is a black bean with smoked sausage

ot, but when roughin it in your winter shack and maximum calories are essential
nothing else will suffice


skyline.jpg

[jwb96]

I never thought I'd like it, but we do a quick and easy veggie chili.

3 cans various beans (we use pinto, black and kidney)
1 can chick peas (I know - technically another bean, right?)
1 lg can diced tomatoes
1 lg jar salsa (pick something interesting to shape the flavor)
Seasoning (salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, etc.)

Throw in a crock pot on low for a day and you're good to go.

Jim

[steve garro]

Below is Tolberts Simple Bowl of Red chili.

That's not bad!
A couple things: "Chilis" grow on bushes. Meat + spices and chilis = "Chile"
Red = Beef. Green = Pork.
Chile does not have beans - that's Frijoles con carne.
You want a big cheaper cut like a pot roast, 4-5lbs.
Take Red Chili pods and soak them in boiling water until soft, then chop in a blender - next, take the resulting paste & force it through a colender - now you have "Red chili"
When your roast is falling apart (roast in a dutch oven at 275*F with one or two beers - don't let it get dry & keep the lid on) pull it apart with a meat fork and add the red chili, only cooking until hot, or you will over cook the chili, turning it too dark.
You can eat this as-is or use for tamale filling.
- Garro.

[Too Tall]

Nice SteveO thanks.
I made a 12 lbs batch of Simple Bowl of Red for my work crew this week and used Chipeltin + New Mexico Hot chilis. Personally, I enjoy the taste of Masa Harina and used that to thicken some. It came out great and everyone on my team loves hot hot hot stuff. They went nuts for the hot sauces I brought. Home run. I did serve cuban black beans on the side because one particular teammember has been hounding me for it. Chili, it's whats for dinner.

[Tom]

Hi, I followed a recipe... the 2011 Cook's Illustrated book, my ma got two so she gave me one (which says a whole lot about our relationship but I'm not here for psychotherapy I pay somebody very good money for that) ... and I am not ashamed to say I followed a recipe.

My notes on the process:

Getting dried ancho and arbols and toasting the anchos to grind all up into a home made chili powder was great. The flavor was far far better than any chili powder I've ever found.

A shot of cocoa powder definitely added something.

What I'd do different, after reading Steve Garro's post is lose the beans and the beer that went in it, in my opinion it was a little too soupy, and follow his cooking method a little more but stick with the spice combo plus the onion/tomato/cumin/jalapeno/oregano paste used to make the liquid base. It's probably not chile, strictly speaking, but it sure tastes good. It's pretty mild the way it comes out but with a tiny bit of late heat, that pleases most people. It's really good if you whack the bowl with some Marie Sharp's grapefruit pulp habanero sauce.

Incidentally, that was this week's great discovery - the Mexican grocery on State Street a couple blocks away from the halal meat market that has all the Indian spices and ingredients. Plus they have a restaurant in there that if appearances are anything is totally legit - we're not talking Moe's Southwest here.

[Too Tall]

Tom,
Mommy issues? Funny. Good report. Yes, I mean NO! Beans NEVER go in chili maybe on the side but never IN the lovely stuff.

[steve garro]

Later when I have time I'll give you guys my pozole recipie..........
- Garro.

[Watoni]

I am sure this is heresy from a chili perspective, but I do add:

Chickpeas I have prepared myself
Zucchini, red peppers, even eggplant (all sauteed separately and added the last 20-30 minutes)

I cook this up front and we take it in a crockpot for ski weekends. This way it is a one pot dish, ready when you come back to a hotel room, that has some veggies for the kids.

By the way, I cooked it in the days leading up to Christmas at the in-laws and they loved it ... One easy dish aside from rib roast for 20, turkey breast with mole for 20, etc

[WadePatton]

ARRight, here's my trick for good chili, forgot where i picked it up but once you try it methinks you'll be hooked. (Oh look it's from the recipe quoth below)

Toasted Cumin. Don't use pre-ground Cumin. Grinding a seed exposes all the good stuff to oxidation/degradation. Buy seeds or whole cumin, then dry toast them on hot skillet until they begin to smoke, crush 'em with rolling pin or mortar & pestle (just got one, never used it--maybe i'll make chili) and use at your normal rate for BIG cumin flavor. Fuller flavor-as you'll capture some of the oxidized away components, plus the heat modifies the goodies (tech terms i know).

That's the biggest secret.

The rest is that I haven't put store-bought meat into a chili in ... well, maybe back in college, but i'm not so sure.

I "spring off from" a recipe from a game cooking book. Here it is:

Venison Chili (The L.L.Bean Game&Fish Cookbook, Angus Cameron and Judith Jones (1983))

1/2 lb pinto or red beans
4 lb coarsely chopped venison
1/2 cup chopped suet or sowbelly*
1.5 tsp cumin seed [toasted/ crushed]
6 good-sized onions
2-4 cloves garlic [or six or eight]
1 tsp oregano
3 Tb. fresh chili powder [mine comes from Hatch, NM]
1 large can tomatoes [usually local]
1 small can green chilies [plus more local dried/fresh]
salt/pepper to taste
dash of tabasco (optional)**
2 Tb instant masa harina or cornmeal***

*Never tried that. Any fat/oil works fine to start the browning process-venison is ultra lean.

**I don't stock "Tabasco" only cayenne sauces.

*** I may try the masa addition this time.

Water is used to get proper consistency, but varies according to how/if you prepare beans, your tomatoes, etc. I'm not going to copy the text and we should know how to throw a chili together. cook the beans, brown the meat, assemble, simmer, let stand, cool, skim fat, reheat, serve. right?

As stated, I don't "follow" any recipe to the letter, They're all just "jumping off points". I made this chili with 7 different peppers once. Haven't made it this season. maybe tonight. OTHER tricks of my chili...sometimes coffee or cola get added-they add body and depth.

This is my red chili.

Last time i made it for the bike club (annual Chili ride), i thought i had made it spicy enough to turn a few away. I went back for a second bowl (there were a dozen chili's to choose from) and mine was GONE. not a teaspoon left.

[Too Tall]

Nice W.P. I'd eat that. Now we need to talk about beans in the chili my friend, what's up with that????? xxoo

Guess what I am making gallons of for Baller's Ride? Red beans on the side. I'll make a vegan version as well.

Wade old buddy, order some of this: Ground Chili Tepin - Chiltepin Molido 0.5 ozl Mmm Mmmm good.

[Tom]

Yee hah! Let's commit some sacrilege, boys!

That turkey I brined last week ended up as about four cups of leftovers that ended up getting chopeed up and added to - a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatos, a 14 ounce can of tomato sauce, two 15 ounce cans of red kidney beans after two white onions were cooked in a little oil until they browned up, about eight or ten dried chipotles and a like number of arbols were toasted and then after the seeds removed were ground up into a powder (don't breathe the dust emitted when you do that, trust me...) and added along with a finely chopped bulb's worth of garlic cloves and four or five finely chopped jalapenos.

Just right for me but too hot for High Command so Grandma's Molasses added... not to my taste but I am kind of warming to the sweetish start and the late, like ten to fifteen second later, heat coming on. Good with a nice hoppy cold beer like a Harpoon IPA.

[WadePatton]

I can go w/ or w/o beans-won't argue*. I find them great for mellowing down a pot when i go overboard-as can happen with my "style".

*Probably has to do with adding protein to the pot when impoverished. There's not always meat (the most expensive source of protein) for each meal when things are tight. Not everyone has access to venison as i do.

[steve garro]

Nice W.P. I'd eat that. Now we need to talk about beans in the chili my friend, what's up with that????? xxoo

Guess what I am making gallons of for Baller's Ride? Red beans on the side. I'll make a vegan version as well.

Wade old buddy, order some of this: Ground Chili Tepin - Chiltepin Molido 0.5 ozl Mmm Mmmm good.

Right on!
You like those, huh? I like the whole chiltepin, myself - El Guapo is a good brand.
- Garro.

[WadePatton]

Yee hah! Let's commit some sacrilege, boys! ...Just right for me but too hot for High Command so Grandma's Molasses added... .

When this happens, i suggest splitting the pot and "cooling down" their pot.

[sbornia]

Resurrecting this thread: any more chili verde recipes to share? I've got a 4-lb. pork butt on order from the local butcher, and plenty of tomatillos, poblanos, and jalapenos ready for action. Made this once before about a year ago, but can't find the recipe now. I think I used some dark beer instead / in addition to chicken broth. Came out great, but am open to new approaches. Let me know!