Do chili beans or meat need more cooking at high heat - need answer fast!

Cafe Society
1

Hi:

I’ve cooked up (ha!) a dish which I realize is almost exactly like your standard chili:

Ground beef
Celery
Onions
Tomato chunks (only a little, though)
Green pepper (and some orange bell pepper for color)
Crushed Cheez-its to absorb the rest of the fat

Spices: pepper, red pepper, habaneros, chili powder.

Besides the spices, they are added in that order (that’s important because otherwise they’d be over or underdone)

Except, and here’s the big difference, it is pan-fried instead of slow cooked. Tonight I plan on adding a tiny portion of chili beans to the mixture to make it even more like chili. My question is, I know that when you make standard chili, you start the ground beef before the chili beans. But considering it will be on higher heat for a shorter period of time, when should I add the chili beans. I am thinking right AFTER the ground beef but before the celery or onions, because the chili beans have a lower surface to volume ratio than the other items and so might need more time to cook.

But considering the higher heat and shorter cooking time, should I start to fry them even before the ground beef? (I also add olive oil btw so they won’t burn right away [and use a higher grade beef than chuck so it won’t be overwhelmingly fatty tasting combined with the oil].)

2

If you’re using canned beans I think they are already cooked and just need to be warmed up with the rest of the mixture.

3

Assuming that “chili beans” mean canned beans, I’d add them last, when everything else is done. They are fully cooked, so you just need to heat them up, and if the rest of the mixture isn’t acidic enough (and it doesn’t look like it is - no canned tomatoes or other acid), they’ll get mushy if cooked too long.

4

Thanks for the advice! Yeah they are canned pre-cooked pinto beans. Ironically, I think I will add them right after the ground beef – both so they will soak up more of the spices – and also so they will be mushy :slight_smile:

I was just afraid they wouldn’t be mushy enough. Now I know I can at least add them after the beef so they can start off in some of its fat without worrying about burning.