Let's all have a seat, crack open a beer, and talk about chili.

Cafe Society
21

Green bell peppers in chili? Is there no Abomination Unto Nuggan that Yankees won’t stoop to?

In just about any mega-mart there will be a display, somewhere on/near the “International” aisle, of cellophane packets of dried chiles and other Mexican spices. This display is your friend, for even though chili isn’t Mexican, that country’s spices are at the core of the dish. Amazingly cheap, too. Stock up on Anaheim, Pasilla, Poblano, Guajillo, California and a dozen other chiles, some good Mexican oregano (for Ghu’s sake don’t use McCormick!) and the rest for 25% of what Penzeys charges.

22

This does work nicely to add another layer of flavor. If I go this route, I only smoke some of them (and I actually don’t like it too heavy on the smoke, just enough to have their presence felt. Use your own judgment.)

Another thing I like to do, in addition to all the great advice above, is to use a mix of textures of beef. I’ll do hand-diced/cubes chuck (good) or boneless short ribs (best) along with some ground beef (either chili grind or regular ground chuck.)

When entering a competition, I find that concentrating the flavor helps. This is where a stock cube or two or three or even straight up MSG works. Bringing home the umami helps bring home the trophy. Or go the fish sauce route for the same effect.

I don’t usually use beer, but when I do, I like using something middle-of-the-road and a bit sweet and malty, like a Newcastle Brown Ale.

For beans, when I use them, I like any of pintos, small red/kidney beans (not the regular ones), or black beans. Or a mix if I’m feeling particularly beany. But even here in the Midwest where everybody wants beans in their chili, I’ve been successful doing an all-meat chili (OK, I finished 2nd in a field of about a dozen last time with an all-meat chili last time, but it does help your chili stand out from the rest of the crowd. Plus my wife and friend forgot to vote, and I only lost by 1 vote. :slight_smile: ) And the person who won also had a very simple, straight-ahead chili, with some beans, but not a whole lot, and no oddball ingredients. No corn, no bell peppers, no sausage, nothing like that. Remember, this is a beef stew. Bring forward the beef. (Except when I’m purposely doing an “everything but the kitchen sink” chili for myself and want to fool myself into thinking I’m eating something slightly healthier or am trying to clear the fridge.)

And, personally, I always use chili powder in my chili. I’ve made it with chili pastes, and it doesn’t taste quite right to me. It could be my own chili powder, or it could be Gebhardt’s or some mix of the two, but it needs some dried chili powder in addition to any other types of chiles you use. Unlike many cooks, I also don’t like using fresh chiles in my chili. It just doesn’t taste right to me, especially green chiles (unless I’m making a green chile, of course, but that’s a whole different beast than your usual chile con carne.) I almost always only use powdered chiles and/or whole dried red chiles that have been toasted and reconstituted and mixed in with the chili powder or ground down to make their own chili powder.

23

Whatever recipe you go with, note the amount of cumin it calls for and double it.

All spices from Penzeys.

I’ve had great success using half flank steak and half chorizo for my meat.

Bean-wise, black beans.
mmm

24

If you’re using store-bought beef broth, switch to Swanson chicken stock. Beef broth you buy in a store is uniformly bland or off-tasting and you get zero punch from it. Your chili won’t taste like chicken (although I usually make mine with chicken) and you’ll get better flavor.

25

As a pescetarian, my chili sin carne recipe probably won’t get you very far. However I agree with others that chipotles in adobo and cumin are essential.

Don’t use coriander/cilantro unless you want 3-21% of the judges to hate you with a passion, depending on ethnicity.

26

Better Than Bullion.

it’s actually concentrated stock.

They also have a Chili Base.(Haven’t tried it)

27

canned beans also have the advantages of 1) being thoroughly cooked via canning so you needn’t worry about soaking/boiling long enough to make them non-toxic, and 2) the canning liquid brings a ton of flavor with it. when I make channa masala I always use canned chickpeas, and use the canning liquid where the recipe might call for water. why throw away flavor?

28

Yes, better than boullioun will work great, too, as it’s essentially beef stock + flavor enhancers (hydrolyzed soy, sugar, yeast extract, whey, etc.) So you’ll get that umami punch, as the soy and yeast extract are glutamate-rich.

29

AKA Vegemite. :wink:

30

Absolutely. Vegemite and Marmite work well, too, as flavor enhancers for any kind of stew. They do kind of contribute their own flavor a bit, as well, so start conservatively.

31

Well, I have two recipes, both of which have won chili competitions. Take, use, or ignore. Up to you.

Beans are not in either, but will not mess them up. Go ahead. Add them.

I won with this one. I add Gochujang, which is not in this copy. Up to you.

OK, this one calls for beans, but I don’t use them. It also calls for Bison, but works fine with pork, turkey, or more beef.

32

The one chili contest I actually won was heavily adapted from the ingredients in a wick fowler kit. Avoid pre-made chili powder and make one from scratch using dried chili peppers (New Mexico or similar) cumin, garlic, onion, etc. If the rules permit (they may not), pre-soak the dried chilies in hot water for 20 minutes and then put the chilie’s plus enough water through a blender. Add the other spices and bring the mix to a boil and then add to your browned beef.

ETA: Then simmer for a long time - the peppers will need to cook.

33

NO BEANS!!!
(caps)

34

would make both. I’m not a “purist.” I bristle intensely against purists. chili is a stew, and a stew is a one-pot dish you make with the ingredients you have on hand. there is no One True Chili, just like there is no One True Beef Stew.

35

So I want to make a note of something that occurred to me today. I remember an old episode of that wonderful documentary on Texas life, King of the Hill. In at least one episode Peggy brags about one of her signature dinner dishes that calls for Wolf brand chili. That’s apparently a real thing, and the popular stuff is made without beans. Here in the PNW if you walk into any supermarket or convenience store the most prominent brand you’ll see on the shelves is Nalley, made of course with beans. The other usual offerings is Dennison’s, made of course with beans.

So yeah, obviously Texans and other southern folk don’t like their beans, and the rest of us do.

Ok, honest question here: if tomatoes and beans are out in Gray Ghost land, what does that leave you besides meat chunks in a thick sauce? That sounds to me like a North American version of a curry.

::adds cumin to the shopping list::

[del]cumin[/del] cumin seeds.

That’s the second vote for Gebhardt’s. I’ll add it to the list. The beef chunks cooked in bacon fat sounds good too, I’ll have to try that.

A lot of you are recommending using masa flour to thicken the chili. I’ll have to try that as well.

I’ll have to check this out. There isn’t a Penzey’s within 150 miles of me and I’d prefer not to mail order anything if a local Safeway has stuff just as good. I’ll see what they have; I certainly know the section you’re talking about.

Thanks for all the tips so far!

36

While I wouldn’t call it a “curry,” a bowl of Texas-style chili is indeed more like a beef stew in a chile pepper sauce. Like this. It reminds me very much of a Hungarian pörkölt (what is often called “Hungarian goulash” here) with a couple extra spices and herbs. (Not that there’s any connection, but both are beef & pepper based dishes associated with the cowboys/herdsmen of their respective countries.) It is very delicious in its own right but, yes, when dealing with most people outside that part of the world, they may very well be confused if you serve them that. That said, when you do have a moment, you should make a pot for yourself to expand your chili horizons. Like I said, I got second place in a chili cook off doing a purist style red (and I was hemming and hawing about doing it, because know your audience and all that, but I just said “fuck it” in the end and was shocked it did as well as it did.)

37

I don’t even know what Chili is anymore. If it more or less seems like chili, it is.

38

That’s pretty much what it is these days. It seems the defining points of chili nowadays are a stew made with cumin + chili peppers of some sort, and that’s about as much commonality as I can find. (And cumin might not even be a requirement.)

39

Texans like beans just fine. Just not in chili. Just like potato salad is something that goes with a hamburger, not on one.

Wolf Brand chili is the perfect chili for chili dogs, chili burgers and Frito Pie. Around here they sell small cans of the stuff that will sauce about 6 chili dogs without waste.

Gebhardt’s was the very first commercially-produced chili powder on the market. It’s primarily dried ancho chilis, with stuff added.

The fact that Nalley’s is the leading brand of canned chili in the PNW says something. Primarily about what a constant diet of rain does to the taste buds.

40

I don’t generally use store-bought, but I should try chicken stock at some point since I pretty much always have more of it.

I’ve used the Better than Bullion that running coach mentioned, and it is indeed very tasty, but more sodium than I’d like, even in the ‘reduced sodium’ version.