OT: Need Advice from the Chili Experts

Joined
Feb 12, 2001
Messages
4,501
Ok, after reading all the posts about chili, I decided to make some of my own. In my opinion, it turned out really well, but I would like to get some advice from the chili experts as to how to improve my recipe. On a side note, this chili puts an excellent patina on khukuri blades. I smeared the blade of my AK with some, and it turned out great. Anyway, here's the recipe I used last time. Please help me out with any suggestions:

Ingredients:
2.5-3 lb boneless rump roast, cubed
¼ lb. bacon, finely chopped
2 large white or yellow onions, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, diced
2 8 oz. cans chipotles in adobo sauce
2 or 3 habañero chiles, seeds removed, finely diced
3-4 pasilla chiles, seeds removed, finely diced
1-2 New Mexico chiles, seeds removed, finely diced
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
2 small cans tomato paste
¼ cup brown sugar

About 1 tsp of the following:
garlic powder
onion powder
cocoa powder

About 1 tblsp of the following:
chili powder
cumin

And a few pinches each of:
salt
Mexican oregano

Cooking directions:
In a lidded cast iron pot or dutch oven, cook the bacon until you have enough bacon fat to brown the beef. Brown the beef, and once it is mostly browned, add onions and then garlic. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat until onions are starting to turn translucent. At this point, turn heat to low and add all other ingredients. Stir, add water or beer to bring chili to consistency where it can be easily stirred. Simmer covered for 6-8 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally.

--Josh
 
I needed a rolaids just from reading the recipe...:eek: :eek: :eek:

:D:D:D

Sarge would be with me on this one small suggestion...

Beans

pinto beans, black beans, mexican beans, whatever you can get your hands on.

Actually, your recipe looks fantastic and probably really packs a whollop!

I'm glad to see no use of tabasco - I hate it when people use it in chili. It overpowers everything else.

Oh, and try a vidalia onion (only during its season...off-season vidalias are not as good) sometime instead of a white one. Don't toss it in the pan until the meat is almost done and you're ready to simmer. You'll get a level of juicy sweetness you never knew onions could have.

Also, mash your garlic instead of dicing it. I'm serious. Garlic dissolves naturally. Let it work it's way into your chili rather than forcing it to spread too quickly.

Use the bacon fat to cook the meat and start the "gravy", but try butter on the onions and garlic.

Do you use any kind of thickener? (flour, starch, etc)

I tend to lean toward the stew side of things (rather than the liquidy, soupy type).

I'd love to give this recipe a shot, but I'm sure I'd be paying for this for days...

Good recipe! - how did it turn out? What did you think about it?
 
Your recipe looks REALLY GOOD :)

I often add 1-2 Tbsp. of corn flour after letting the chili simmer for 4 hours. Gives it a homey flavor. Sometimes a pinch of whole celery seed is added to the onions and peppers while they are being sauteed. I've even added carrot shavings and mushrooms before. Have you tried soaking the dried beans in Guiness Stout overnight? :D A 'white' chili of pork and pinto beans (no tomatoe products) is always an option. Just experiment till it's right for you.
 
That's a dang good start Josh!!!
Especially the different kinds of chilis for complexity. You've got all the basic ingredients, but in addition to the previous suggestions I'll reiterate and add a few (you don't need to try all at once!! but you obviously enjoy cooking so here's more ideas):

"Use the bacon fat to cook the meat and start the "gravy", but try butter on the onions and garlic."

yes, this will give them a wonderful browned roasted flavor and sweetness. And Pen is right about crushing the garlic, you can use a mortar and pestle and a bit of salt for abrasive. Then you can ditch the garlic powder. Crushed garlic should be added onlyat the very end quickly followed by a bit of liquid as it will burn easily and turn bitter. You also get more flavor from the same amount of garlic this way.

The fresh peppers, especially the habaneros, will develop a much better flavor if you seed and stem them and pre-cook them in a bit of oil until they just start to brown. Do them separately or just toss them into something else you're cooking in oil. Remembember, the thinner the flesh, the less cooking needed, so don't put all in at the same time. And the chipotles in adobo are wonderful, and need no treatment. Adds a great smokey touch.

If you want to go even further, roast red bell peppers directly on a gas burner or in the broiler until the skin darkens and blisters. Allow to cool in a plastic bag and the skin will be removed easily. Seed and mash or grind them up and they will thicken like tomato paste and be be tastier.

Dry roasting whole cumin (and other spices) in a pan without oil on the stove until they just start to smell and then grinding them after cooling in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle will make you forget powdered spices forever. You can clean the coffee grinder by grinding a bit of rice or dried split peas or the like to get out the strong taste of the spices before you use it again for coffee.

Soaked small beans are good touch, as mentioned. As is beer either for soaking the beans, or added as a cooking liquid later. A touch of dry sherry is good especially for black beans, but I wouldn't mix with beer.

Also instead of corn flour as Mssr. Cat suggests a bit of masa harina (corn tortilla flour) adds an different, more prominent corn taste and acts as a thickener.

For final taste adjusments, you can add a bit of vinegar, soy sauce, worstestershire sauce, catsup, juice from pickled peppers and the like if you think it needs to be more sour, salty, sweet or whatever. The added flavors from all these things seem to blend right in and add a little extra instead of just using salt or sugar.

Also using the dried mexican chilis which are prepared by softening in a dry skillet with low heat, then seeding followed by re-hydration via soaking then grinding to a sauce are another fun way to add a different chili taste--they also act as a thickening agent.

I really like the Mexican oregano, it really kicks *ss compared to the regular stuff doesn't it? Not all foods can stand up to it it, but for stuff like chile, it's great.

These suggestions are just little tweaks, you've clearly got a fine recipe already. But if you're like me experimentation adds to the fun.:)
 
Originally posted by firkin
But if you're like me experimentation adds to the fun.:)
Amen to that!

The "experiment" is just an excuse to have another good home-cooked meal - becoming a novelty in our day...

One caveat though - one day my wife said to me "Could we just have a regular pizza tonight?" :(

Apparently, my "experimenting" had gone awry. That was before I came up with the latest pizza recipe. The only comments since settling on that last design have been "Wow. This is sooo good." :D :p

Josh - you have some great advice here - ideas you can only get by eavesdropping at a chili cookoff...or by posting a thread at the HI forum.

We need a thread that combines everybody's greatest tip for winning chili bowls...

Maybe this is a start.

;)
 
Awesome tips guys-- thanks a bunch. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. Now I just need to finish eating the last batch so I can start a new one.
--Josh
 
I'm a little biased, but I think you should use about 50-60 New Mexico chilies, and leave all that other junk out ;)

(New Mexico chile is a little different than other places - no meat or beans, and it's used like a condiment on EVERYTHING)
 
CHILI, Is easy to make.I just throw everything together,beans or without. :) :D What ever u like.:rolleyes:
 
The New Mexico chiles must be pretty good. I had a buddy in Taos who won national chilli cookoff using them -- about $40,000 first prize.
 
Originally posted by Sylvrfalcn
You left out the gunpowder and fire ants;) :eek:

Sarge

The fire ants wouldn't stay in there. They said it was too hot. I think I will go easier on the chiles in my next batch.
--Josh
 
Back
Top