This weekend I brought some chili to a potluck dinner. It was quick to prepare, and went over really well. However, it just wasn’t quite spicy enough. I’m not looking to make chilli that’ll make you cry coming and going, but I’d like to cook some up that makes you want a glass of milk to go with it.
So… how do you like to prepare your chili? Any tips for heating it up a bit?
My simple approach…
brown 1 lb ground turkey and ‘enough’ diced onions
I know it’s not homemade, the way I usually like to cook, but a little packet of McCormicks chili seasoning does the trick. Get 2 if you want! That, along with using canned black beans, in their sauce, in place of kidney beans-gives it a really re\ich flavor.
I use a few each of habenero, serrano, and jalapeno. Add in a few cloves of garlic, and you’re well on your way. You may also want to try sundried tomatoes, which give a nice sweet taste, but you should slice them up into easily biteable size first.
I haven’t tried the beer thing yet. What do you use, and how much?
well, I am not the type of cook to cook with measurements…
that said,
I put some beer in until it tastes good.
I usually use what ever we have in the fridge.
Generally, I end up using about 1/2 a bottle for a medium sized pot. the other half I put in safe keeping (my tummy!).
I too am interested in the beer aspect. Are we talking general American lager here? What sort of ratio? Any way to describe its effect on the flavor?
TheNerd wrt the fresh peppers, should that be with or without the seeds?
Scredle any idea what’s in the chili seasoning? I’ve just got a McCormick’s shaker full of slightly hot red stuff labeled ‘Chili powder’ and I’m wondering if that’s the same thing or not.
Thanks for the ideas, it’ll be fun to try them out.
Bad News Baboon, you’re from Texas, aren’t you? If that’s true, please tell me you’re not tacitly endorsing the use of tomatoes and…:shudder:…beans in chili. I know you weren’t the one to suggest it, but you can’t let a remark like that pass.
My stepfather has competed in the world championships in Terlingua several times, and there are rules to chili-cooking. No tomatoes, and no beans! And ground turkey?
Anyhoo, I can’t post his recipe, because he won’t tell anyone what it is. I do know he uses a mix of several varieties of ground dried chili peppers. I’ll have to watch him more closely the next time I get a chance…
For some reason I never really have liked “Tex-Mex Chili.”
My best friend introduced me to Green Chile (also known as pork stew) which is more New Mexican and find the flavors to be much more satisfying to most everyone I know. I don’t put beans in it, although you can but then it’s bastardized but I put them on the side for those that wish to add them. Also, it is the perfect meal that doesn’t produce gas (unless you add beans.)
My version in case anyone cares to make it:
Green Chile
[ul]
[li]2 tbsp olive oil[/li][li]2 pounds boneless pork, cut into 1-inch cubes (pork tenderloin is best)[/li][li]½ cup chopped onion[/li][li]1 clove garlic, minced[/li][li]¼ cup flour (whole wheat is very good with this)[/li][li]2 cups peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes (I prefer the Roma/Italian tomatoes) can use canned if you like[/li][li]2 cups roasted, peeled and chopped fresh green chiles or 2 - 7 oz cans green chiles drained and chopped you can also find frozen chile in most grocery stores[/li][li]1 fresh jalepeño, chopped[/li][li]1 tsp salt[/li][li]½ tsp fresh ground pepper[/li][li]½ tsp sugar[/li][li]1 tsp marjoram[/li][li]1 tsp cumin[/li][li]1 cup chicken or beef broth[/li][/ul]
Heat olive oil in a 4 quart pan with a cover. Add pork and cook until lightly browned. Add onion and garlic and stir with the meat. Add flour and stir 1-2 minutes.* Add tomatoes, green chiles, jalepeño, salt, pepper, sugar, marjoram and cumin. Mix well. Add broth. Lower heat (about medium low). Cover and simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender.
Serves 6
If you decide to cook in a crock pot, you should lightly brown the meat, onion, garlic and the flour as described in a regular pan then transfer to a pre-warmed crock pot and cook according to the remainder of the directions. Remember that a crock pot will need at least 8 hours of cook time for this recipe depending on your crock pot cooking guide.
Side with warmed tortillas brushed with butter and cooked pinto beans. You can add the pinto beans to the chile too if you choose. Dip the tortilla in the green chile for a nice mild taste.
You can also add a dollop of sour cream to the individual servings of green chile to make it less spicy for the fair of taste.
Oh and if you want, you can cut the pork to 1/2 inch cubes and freeze it for a topping on an oven heated burrito…so tasty and better than the canned stuff.
It is called “Chile con carne” – that literally translates as “Chile,with meat” implying that there would be a dish of chile without meat.
But that would contain nothing but just hot peppers (chiles) … No tomatoes in Texas chili? Wow. I mean, I know y 'all are nationalistically carnivorous, but still…
As to the beer, it does indeed add a certain no-sé-qué… just use any good ol’ American working-class brew (if in Texas, use Lone Star?).
I like to add a few thai chilies, chopped up. If I can’t find thais, I use serranos, but they don’t have the same kind of heat. I also add some chili flakes.
Abolutely. In fact, I’ll have none of this “brown and drain” stuff. The ground beef should be be cooked “wet”…that is, cooked in enough liquid to cover it…and it should never be drained.
Using this method allows for getting the ground beef into tiny little pieces.
LOL. that is true. real texas chili does not have tomatoes or beans. and it is goooooooood.
however, the baboon herself is a kinda vegeterian (I keep meat use to a minimum when cooking -not saying I don’t eat it) so I do use beans and tomatoes. I make it more “vegetally” than “meaty”.
the beer I use is really anything I have in the fridge. it is usually stuff like sam adams or shiner bock or anchor steam. I don’t now what kinds of beers these are. Once we had a load of bud and I used that. I haven’t used a stout, though. It gives the chili a nice rich taste, I think.
I also make a geen chile…different from the forementioned chile verde. Imagine a chili as described using green chilis instead of red. With this chili however, I use refried beans mixed into the sauce to thicken it up.
I also use Cumin in my chili. it is a very important spice to use in makng chili.
and I use Harina de Masa (the flour used in making tamales).
If you’re a chicken (like me) and don’t want to risk cutting the fresh peppers, go to your local grocery store in the spice aisle and buy “red pepper”. use a teaspoon or so…it’ll spice up the chili. It’s a must in every batch of chili I make. And I make some damn good chili.
Start with dried ancho chiles. Roast until soft and tear open to get rid of the seeds. Soak in hot water for 20 mins. Grind in a food processor/blender with onion and garlic. Cook in frying pan with olive oil for 5 mins. Add to pot of beans and beef. Add 3 squares of baker’s chocolate. You end up with something that looks like the stuff William Hurt ate in “Altered States.” But really yummy.
Well I hate to disagree folks, but I grew up in West Texas, my family went there from Kentucky well before the Civil War, and we always had tomatoes/tomato sauce in our chili.
Also had pinto beans. Had to stretch it somehow because we were pretty poor.
Besides pinto beans and ground meat along with a cheap cut of meat cut into small pieces, our chili has onions, chili powder, cumin, garlic, red pepper, jalapenos, small amount of oregano and paprika.
Also some masa flour.
It’s not real hot - at least not to someone that grew up eating hot foods - but it will make you sweat while you eat it.
I’ve never seen the dish in Mexico, I’ve seen it on many Tex-Mex or New Mexican restaurant menus. “Chile verde” usually describes a fresh serrano chile here. There is a common dish called “carne con chile”(not the other way around),which has many variations. It can use pork or beef and the sauce can be made with different types of chiles.
For carne con chile in a green sauce my wife uses tomates (tomatillos in the U.S.) and chile serrano.
For red sauce it’s chile ancho and chile de arbol seco (dried red chile). Sometimes she thickens it with a little masa and it is served with beans on the side.
The use of dried spices and calling it “good” chili is just contradictory. You can make something that tastes good with dried spices, but it won’t have the proper character.
That being said, chili powder is to be used after the fact on someone’s chili that failed its attempt to become chili.
I agree about not draining the beef.
I wasn’t born in Texas, so I do appreciate beans in my chili, but I do understand that this is not its pure form.
I think it give it a good texture and flavor. As long as you don’t use canned beans. Those spices in the beans will mess up any attempt to make real chili.
Chili should have onions, peppers, garlic. Various other fresh spices and herbs to taste.
I wouldn’t put Lone Star in anything that I didn’t want to ruin. I can’t imagine cooking that stuff would make it any better.
But hey, that’s just my 2 cents. If I’m going to go to the trouble of making chili from scratch, I’m not gonna waste my time making something that I did half way.
