Chili: The final (and complete) recipe

If you ask 10 people, “What is the best chili?”, you are likely to get 1o different answers. As with so many things in life, personal preference reigns supreme when it comes to chili. My own preferences have changed, better, evolved over the years, and this recipe is the result. You may close to make modifications to the ingredients according to your preferences, but try to give this recipe at least one try. I welcome any comments or suggestion regarding it, BUT, I’m not likely to change the recipe any time soon!

Ingredients

For the chili powder:

(Note: For this recipe, you will need about 2 cups of chili powder)

• 4 parts ground ancho pepper
• 2 parts oregano (preferably, Mexican oregano)
• 1 part ground cumin
• 1 part smoked paprika
• 1 part ground chipotle pepper
• 1/2 part Goya Sazon seasoning
• 1/2 part fine ground dark roast coffee
• 1/2 part sumac

For the chili :

• 5 lbs. beef brisket
• 2 lbs smoked sausage
• 3 lbs yellow onion, diced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups tomato sauce
• 1 1/4 cups tomato paste
• 2 cups chili powder (see above)
• 1 cup bourbon whiskey
• 12 oz. dark bitter beer
• 3 squares (70% or better cocoa) chocolate
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup spicy V8 vegetable juice
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 tbsp. sea salt
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 2 tbsp. masa flour

Directions

Prep time: About 2 hours. Cooking time: At least 3 hours.

Mix together the ingredients for the chili powder, and set aside.

Combine the cup of beef broth and cup of V8. This is what I call ‘balancing liquid’, and it will be used to adjust the final consistency of your chili. Set this aside.

Now, break out your largest skillet (a wok works well too). In a little butter or olive oil, cook the onion and garlic until the moisture has been removed, and the onion is beginning to brown. Drain any excess liquid, and set aside.

Take 1 pound of the sausage and 2 pounds of the brisket, and using the coarsest die on your meat grinder, grind these meats together. Sauté the ground meat until browned, drain any excess liquid, and set aside.

With the 3 pounds of brisket and 1 pound of sausage remaining, cut this meat into a 1/4 inch dice. This will take a little while. Separately, brown the beef and sausage, again,  draining any excess liquid, and set aside.

Now let’s make chili. In a large pot (at least 8 quarts) add all the ingredients EXCEPT 1 cup of the chili powder, the masa flour and the balancing liquid (beef broth/V8). Mix throughly, and then bring the chili up to heat. Simmer the chili for one hour, covered. Stir every 15 minutes.

Remove the cover, and stir in the masa flour. This will thicken the chili somewhat. Add the balancing liquid as necessary to achieve the consistency you prefer in your chili. I like mine very thick, almost like a condensed stew. Also add more of the reserved chili powder, to taste, to enrich the flavor of the chili. Continue to simmer for at least 2 more hours, uncovered, and throughly stirring every 15 minutes or so. The chili is done when the brisket has had time to become tender.

Notes

I nearly always serve chili with some kind of corn bread.

I prefer to male chili in large batches. It freezes well, and why go through all the bother for just a couple of bowls?

Of course, canning is an option as well!

Chili Part Two: Meat and Stuff

The “stuff” in chili is pretty easy to explain; the meat, much less so. It is a long, complex story.

So, I’ll start with the ‘stuff’. It really is this simple: Onions and garlic. No other vegetables, and NO beans. OK, if you want fresh chilis in the chili, no problem with that, but of late, I just add dried, ground chili to the mix at the end to adjust the heat based on who is eating the chili. And, of course, you can add beans, if you must. But talk to any serious Texan chili cook about beans, and expect to be laughed at.

The onions and garlic should be sautéed down to remove excess moisture. I cook mine till the onion is just beginning to brown. I will give the amounts in the final chili-related post, where the entire recipe is revealed.

The meat I use in chili is simple as well: beef and smoked sausage. But how I got to those is not simple.

When I was young, I thought chili was taking a pound of hamburger, browning it, cooking down diced yellow onion, adding a can of tomato sauce, a can of beans, and a spice jar of chili powder, and cooking it for an hour. That was it. Fortunately, I began to travel the country, and I learned what chili could, and should, be. I knew it must have small chunks of whole meat. So I began experimenting.

But not for long. At this time I married my first wife, who, though a lovely woman, was practically a vegetarian. So my experiments with meat were curtailed somewhat, as I had to begin using tofu, TVP, and tempeh to make chili. Now, don’t get me wrong. Each of these ‘non-meats’ has it’s time and place. But that place is not chili. I am thankful I learned to use these ingredients, and that knowledge has served me well over the years. But as soon as my divorce was final, I went right back to meat.

My proving grounds were annual ‘football fests’ – New Year’s Day gatherings of many long-time friends, spent watching college football bowl games. After all, who better to judge my efforts than beer-addled buddies? I used chunks of beef, pork, chicken and sausage in various combinations over the years, finally settling on just using beef and smoked sausage. These meats were prepared by cutting into 1/4 diced pieces, browning the meat, draining excess fat and juice, and adding to the chili pot.

The final discovery I made was using some portion of the meats in a back-to-the-future manner of grinding them up. Why? A chili cook-off to benefit my current wife’s election campaign. You have no idea how long it takes to cut 40 pounds of brisket and 16 pounds of sausage into 1/4 inch dice. And neither do I ! After spending hours doing about half the meat this way, I broke out the meat grinder, and using the coarsest die possible, ground the rest of it up. I delivered that the combination of the whole meat and ground meat yielded a consistency that was, well, awesome. I have since adjusted the proportion of chunked meat to ground meat of 2:1 .

Like most things in life, chili is a matter of personal preference. These are mine, and enough others are pleased with the result, so I’m sticking with it.

Thai Dog

In another of my series of culturally inspired hot dogs,  I decided to do a Thai style dog which is not only a little spicy, but has most of the rich flavors associated with Thai food.

As is normally the case with these hot dogs, this is a compound dog which involves preparation of another dish prior to the assembly of the dog. In this case, you will need to make Larb, and this link will take you to my recipe for it. Make it ahead of time, so it is ready to go when you make the dogs.

Ingredients

• poultry hot dog or sausage(mild)
• potato hot dog bun
• Larb
• Thai red curry paste
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 bunch of cilantro (or leftover cilantro from making the larb)
• 1 cup whole basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons butter

Take the chopped basil and add it to the softened butter to form a compound butter. Butter the inside of the hot dog buns with the basil butter. and then toast them until lightly brown.

Next, grill the hot dogs or sausages. I used pretty standard turkey hot dogs. Do not worry about the blandness of the dog – we will be spicing it up just fine. Grill the dogs until there are nice and brown on the outside. Remove them from the grill.

In a pan, add about 1 tablespoon of the Thai red curry paste and about 1/2 the can of coconut milk. Blend together completely over medium heat. When combined, add the hot dogs and saute them gently, allowing the flavors of the curry to cook into the dogs.

Place the dog on the toasted bun along with about 1 teaspoon of the curry suace. Then add about 1/3 cup of the larb to top the dog. Over the top of that, add fresh basil leaves and cilantro and the dog is complete.

I served mine with nori sushi, since you should have some rice with any Asian meal, though I supposed cripy fries would work as well !

Red Beans and Rice

You might call this ‘Cajun Cassoulet‘ or even ‘Louisiana-style Paella’ , but no matter what you call it, beans and rice are always a great meal ! Rather than just stay with the standard sausage, I added chicken and shrimp to the dish to give it a more paella-like quality, but you can feel free to leave that out if you want it in a more traditional way.

Ingredients

• 1 pound andouille sausage links (or cut into 5 inch pieces)
• 2 cups dry red beans
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 5 chicken wings, tips removed and separated
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 5 stalks of celery, chopped
• 5 ounces bacon, pork side meat, or smoked jowl, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon lard
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Cooked white rice.

Start by preparing the beans, either by soaking them overnight, or using the ‘quick soak’ method described on the package.

In a large, oven safe pot, add the butter, lard, and chopped bacon and begin cooking over medium heat, until the lard is rendered, and the bacon begins to render as well. Add the chopped onion, celery and bell pepper, and continue cooking until the vegetables have cooked down, and the onion is translucent.

Add the prepared beans, the sausage, the 2 cups of beef stock and the spices to the pot, and mix throughly. Cover and place the pot in a 250 degree oven for 4 hours.

While this is cooking, take the chicken wing pieces and fry them in a little butter or oil until they are golden brown. Also use this time to peel and devein your shrimp.

After 4 hours of cooking the beans, remove the pot from the oven. Take about 2/3 cup of the bean mixture (do not include any of the sausage) and put it in a food processor. Blend this until smooth, then add it back to the pot to thicken the bean mixture. Add the same time, add the chicken wing pieces, recover the pot, and put it back in the oven for 1 more hour.

Remove the pot from the oven and place it on the stove over low heat. Add the shrimp, and cook the mix for about 5 to 10 minutes until the shrimp are cooked. Serve over rice and enjoy.

French Dog

This is another of my series of Inspired Hot Dogs, in this case, based on elements of French cuisine.

To make this hot dog, you will need the following, already prepared :

• Mushroom and Onion accompaniment for beef (Deluxe Version)
• Duck Confit

Of course, the duck confit takes quite a while to prepare, so you will either need to purchase it (if you can find it anywhere) or think about making this well in advance !

I started with a 6 inch long mini-baguette, as you might expect with any French meal. This was split, not quite in two, and buttered with a compound butter made of the following:

• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced

The bread is then toasted on the grill.

On this, I used what would typically be a French country sausage:  A mild pork sausage link seasoned with garlic and herbs. These were grilled over low heat until brown and crispy on the outside.

Place the sausage on the toasted baguette, top liberally with the onion/mushroom mixture, and add pulled duck confit to the top.

This is rich in two ways: the flavor, and the cost, which ended up being about $12/dog, not even counting the time. Still, it was well worth it.