Remember, it’s chili con carne, NOT carne con chili.
For your reading pleasure: The Chili Judge.
Hmmm. I had no idea chili could cause such controversy.
I’m beginning to realize how weenie my chili is–I don’t add any hot peppers at all. I do have some green hot sauce, which is milder than the red type, but I never think to add it. I’ll have to remember that when I heat it up today.
I like chili in all of it’s incarnations but a couple of years ago Bon Apetit published a recipe for chili that we made and it was by far the best chili I’ve ever eaten. It was just so succulent and delicious. Just the right amount of spicy. Here’s the kicker, the recipe contained no beans and no tomoatoes! I’m searching for the recipe but I haven’t found it yet. No matter how you normally like your chili this is something you must try. It’s amazing! I’ll keep searching for the recipe. I’m pretty sure it’s on line somewhere.
I think this is the recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/02/beef_chili_with_ancho_mole_and_cumin
Beans in chili please!
Brown about 3 lbs of ground beef and a couple good sized onions, drain.
In big pot, I mix the meat, a big can of Brooks Chili Hot beans, 2 cans diced tomatoes and a can or Rotel. Add a bottle of beer-Guiness is best- salt to taste & a couple teaspoons of chili powder. Top with enough water to make it the consistancy I like. (You can see this is all very exact…)
Simmer for a couple hours, eat with peanut better sandwich or cornbread.
Start with Wick Fowlers, one can tomato paste, one can tomato sauce,1 lb hamburger, 1 to 1 1/2 lb sausage, one bag Bird’s Eye pepper mix, 1 large onion chopped,4 tomatillas chopped, 1 can spicy diced tomatoes, two cans black beans. Perfect chili.
Fowlers is ok. Shelby’s is better. Morton’s is best.
Floater - what’s your point? Either way there’s no frijoles anywhere.
Damn Yankees.
I do it all ways: Texas style (no beans, sometimes even no tomatoes), Cincinnatti style, lots o’beans style, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style, white chili w/ chicken, etc. It’s all good, but I tend to be partial to the more purist Texas style bowls or the white chili when I’m feeling in the mood for a change, and I hand cleave the meat into fine dice (no ground beef) when I’m making this style.
All the research I’ve ever seen on this seems to indicate it was basically a beef stew, beans on the side, if used at all. I understand that you seem to think it’s logical that because beans were a cheap protein, they would most definitely be used, but I disagree. Hungary’s herdsmen have a history of eating a somewhat similar dish, made with dried pieces of beef, onions, paprika, peppers, and maybe some tomato. (Goulash). It’s actually quite interesting, for me, to see how similar the ideas for the two dishes are, eaten by the same types of workers, in countries thousands of miles apart.
I like all kinds of chili. My two favorite kinds are Texas red and Cincinnati. NO BEANS. Now I do like a big pot of pinto beans, but not with my chili.
Sometimes I like chili served over spaghetti. I will always have shredded cheddar cheese and raw onion on top. Occasionaly some chopped jalapenos as a garnish or a couple of dashes of tobasco. Sometimes I like it served over fritos. And sometimes just with saltines.
I do also like chili cooked with bacon in it.
My favorite chili is cooked by myself at home, but if I’m gonna eat it out, Hard Times Cafe is pretty damn good.
I don’t have one way I cook chili. My ground beef chili is fairly quick, I have a chicken chili which takes a medium amount of time, and I have a chili made from a diced chuck roast and sausage that takes half-a-day to cook.
All have beans. Kidney beans are essential. Cannelli and black are often also used by me.
I buy dried peppers and often make my own chili powder, using 3-5 different types of peppers. I’m always experimenting, and really should write down my mix before grinding so when I finally find the absolutely perfect blend (as opposed to my usual very good blends), I can recreate it.
No beans for me, at least not usually. I’ve made it with beans before, and I’ll probably make it that way again, but simple and basic is my favorite.
-A lot of beef, cubed.
-Big heaping handfuls of peppers, your choice depending on how hot you want it. I use a lot of jalapenos along with some serranos or habaneros for heat.
-Chili powder, homemade is best, Gebhartds will do.
-Beef stock
-Salt, pepper, cumin, and some Mexican oregano.
-Masa for thickening.
Brown or, better yet, smoke the meat. Don’t cook it through, just flavor the outside. Dice the peppers, remove the veins if you don’t like too much heat. Toss all of the ingredients into the pot except for the masa. Cook until it becomes chili, you’ll recognize it when you see it. Add masa if you want it a bit thicker. Serve with cornbread (not the sweet kind) and beer.
I make a very basic ground beef chili WITH BEANS seasoned with Penzey’s Chili 3000.
Served over macaroni noodles, topped with shredded cheddar.
I won’t bother with my full recipe, but I like to crush up some tortilla chips and put them in to thicken it.
My prefered way to eat it is with sour cream, a lime wedge, and tortilla chips.
Super Bowl Sunday can’t get here soon enough!
I have two chili recipes - both with beans. The regular one is ground beef, canned diced tomato, onion, red/pinto/black beans, garlic, cumin, bay, and two or three tablespoons of chili powder (or a teaspoon of cayenne). My fancy-dancy one is roasted pork, chopped, 1 inch chunks of potato, pinto beans, and a little can of diced peppers, with the usual garlic, onion, and cumin powders. Both of them are usually made in the crock-pot, and I am now starving. I think I’ll make some for dinner today. If I top either of them, its with sour cream or cheese, with savory cornbread on the side.
Chunks of beef and pork, or a chili-grind for the pork if I can get it. Onions, peppers (as many different kinds as possible), and sometimes tomato (to sweeten it up a liitle for mass appeal). Additional seasonings; cumin, oregano, coriander, parsley, and garlic. Sometimes I add beer, but I check for how much liquid comes out of the meat and vegetables first, I don’t want it too thin. A small amount of flour or masa if necessary for thickening. While I brown the meat and vegetables I add some of the dried peppers, add more when it starts to simmer, and add cayenne near the end to get the temperature right. I’ve used chicken in addition to the beef and pork on occasion, but it doesn’t seem to improve it all.
Oh, and I start by chopping up some uncooked bacon, and brown that in the pot to get the bacon grease to start browning the other ingredients in.
Another Super Bowl Sunday is Chili Day fan. If you can find it, try Crema Mexicana in place of sour cream. It’s not as thick, but has more flavor.
For thickening, I will puree some of the beans and vegetables, plus some masa harina. I’ve tried the tortilla chips - not bad, but not my favorite.
I hate chili threads. Somebody always comes in and shits all over it about goddamned beans, tomatoes, onions, et al. Get over it, already: people have different tastes.
Beans here to. Otherwise it just seems like sloppy joe mix. Beans for me make it a meal in itself.
Honestly, one of my co-workers enters chili contests and often wins. He does not use beans. I tried it and thought it was the most boring stuff ever.
If you’re going to enter a Chili Cookoff in Texas, you’d better leave out the beans. But many a Texan greets the first cold front with a quick home cooked concoction–that may well contain beans. Just don’t tell anybody!
Wick Fowler’s kit is really good. If you’ve got time, little cubes of meat are better than ground. (Hint: Stew meat is easily reduced into those little cubes.) Mostly beef, but a little pork is a great touch. Sausage? Sounds good.
I wouldn’t used sweet pepper; dried chiles are better unless you’re just going with chili powder. Gebhardt is traditional, Penzey’s 2000 is excellent.
Dress as you like! With beans if they aren’t in the mix. Or on pasta–although they used to call it Chili-Mac. Cheese, scallions, sour cream–whatever.
I do balk at tomato soup…
And your positive contribution to this thread would be…
Pot, meet kettle.