I’m not really looking for a specific recipe. I’m pretty good at “cooking by ear”. I’m just interested in knowing if anyone has a good secret ingredient or two - or a general plan - that will knock it out of the park.
Here are the rules: you must bring everything to the competition unprepared. You must slice and dice, brown, simmer, etc. right there on site. I’ll have a propane stove and a crock pot.
I’ve been thinking about such ingredients as mentioned above. I’m planning on using some basic (but necessary) items like fried onion, garlic, kidney beans, tomatoes, and spices yet to be determined.
For the meat, though, I have an idea that I think might work nicely (most of the entrants at the last one used ground beef, a couple had some sort of diced beef). Anyway, I thought I would use the meat from spare ribs sauteed with onion, garlic, and a touch of maple syrup. For even more porky flavor, I’ll add some freshly-fried bits of bacon.
I should mention that this isn’t a Five-Alarm type contest. Something very spicy would have no chance of winning.
So…any ideas?
Any thoughts on my plan thus far?
(by the way, I haven’t actually tried this yet, but I will when I get a chance)
mmm
I met a guy who PLACED (didn’t win, but got really close) by basing his chili recipe on Taco Bell packaged sauces. He explained the whole recipe to me and I was skeptical, but a buddy of his saddled up and confirmed the story.
I’ll fess up. I have two ‘secret ingredients’. I put in a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, which (I think, in my humble opinion) sort of ‘warms up’ the flavor, or makes it more flavorful, and also probably a tablespoon or so of Hershey’s or similar cocoa powder, a little for the flavor, but mostly because it makes the color of the chili look a whole lot better. I hate it when my chili looks all pale. It just doesn’t have the ‘gravitas’ of a good chili when it looks orange-ish pink. Ha Ha!
My Ultimate Chilli con Carne (which many people, including those who have lived in Central America, say is the best they’ve ever tasted) calls for, in addition to the beef, onion, tomatoes etc., fried up chopped spicy chorizo, a can of beer boiled off once the meat has browned, a jar of chopped pickled jalapenos or chipotle to provide all of the heat - no chilli powder or anything - more cumin than you would think healthy, turmeric, a lot of black pepper, hickory smoke flavor, then at the very end, turn off the heat and drop a broken up 4oz bar of bitter/unsweetened dark chocolate onto the top until it’s melted, then swirl it in with a heaping tablespoonful of sour cream.
(bolding is mine)
I feel reluctant to open this can of worms again but, beans are not in any way a necessary ingredient in chili. Never have been and never will be.
As for secret or special ingredients - someone already mentioned unsweetened dark chocolate and I whole-heartedly agree. Coffee is also something that can give serious depth of flavor. But in the name of all that is good and holy, omit the beans.
I forgot to say - add fresh lime juice to taste at the end, to balance off the cloyingness of the chocolate/sour cream combo. Garnish with torn cilantro (if your audience will eat cilantro).
I don’t doubt the bean arguments, but 'round these parts (far north of Texas), it’s pretty much expected.
Hey, maybe the absence of beans will make my stuff stand out.
Regarding the chocolate - someone tried that several years ago (this is a small, informal, annual event) and folks still talk of how nasty it was. Perhaps it wasn’t done right.
I jumped into this thread to suggest serving up sides of toast and peanut butter to dip in the chili.
My family has been doing this for ages. I can’t remember how or where the tradition started, but toast & peanut butter dipped in chili is a winning combination.
I just entered a chili cookoff. Didn’t win, but I got nothing back in my pot, so I guess some people liked it.
I started cooking around 7PM the day before, planning to deliver the crockpot around 8AM. I cooked everything in a large skillet (two batches, since the crockpot was larger than the skillet) for about an hour, then dumped it in the crockpot and let it sit overnight on low.
The winner had some pork chunks in with the ground beef. I think I’ll try that next year.
True. But, at the risk of seeming brusque, so what? Tomatoes aren’t strictly necessary either. If you’re not going to be a ‘Texas red’ purist, why strain at that particular gnat? The wonderful thing about chili is that the concept (fiery stew using dried ground chiles to flavor the base) is so robust. Chili can be interpreted uniquely -even idiosyncratically- by individual cooks who can yet remain true to the idea of it.
The only OP ingredient I might reconsider would be the bacon bits (I’d favor using a coarse ground pork shoulder or butt), but then again that might be your winning touch, so if you feel strongly about it go for it.
I second jjimm’s beer tip, and also urge you not to scrimp on the cumin. Have fun!
I guess we aren’t purists in my neighborhood. Some chili entries had elbow macaroni, some had beans, some were meat only. The judges didn’t disqualify anyone as long as it was red (and I’ve seen white chili, so maybe anything can be called chili if you dare).
I noticed that my chili, which had beans, was a little sweeter than other pots. Although I didn’t add any sugar, I think the sweetness came from the tomato sauce and syrup from the canned kidney beans – I drain them just a little.
Chili doesn’t really have to cook for hours, particularly if you use ground meat or chicken. I would think meat from sauteed ribs would be tough in the short term. I use black beans, as I think they’re far tastier than kidneys. As for spices, I use ancho, cumin, Mexican oregano, smoked paprika, chipotle, a pinch of cinnamon and some others. If you don’t want a lot of heat, use a diced up green bell pepper instead of chili peppers, and let the chipotle do your talking. When you saute the meat/veggies, saute the spices also.
For a cookoff-type situation, I would actually throw in a bit of powdered beef stock that contain glutamates or just straight MSG (accent). When you’re dealing with a lot of judges and contestants that only get a little bite of your food, you need extra concentration of flavor to stand out (in my opinion.) From what I’ve seen and tasted in local competitions, nothing I make in its normal state would ever place. While my favorite bowl of chili is pretty close to a purist bowl of red, I would never make one for a chili contest. There is no chance of it winning, at least not here.
As for the meat, boneless beef short ribs, in my opinion, have the most flavor. Brown them nice and good before throwing them in the pot. A friend of mine won a local chili contest by adding some lamb and smoked pork shoulder into the mix, along with the beef and pork. So there’s some more ideas.
I heard a story somewhere of a guy who went to a Chili contest and on a lark, grabbed a bowl and collected samples from all the various sample tents, mixed them togeather and entered the result in the contest and ended up winning first place until he fessed up and told the judges what he’d done.