Texas Style Chili

I don’t like beans so I never put beans in my chili.  But I do usually use tomato sauce.  Here’s a link to my usual chili recipe. 

Today I decided to go all Texas.  Just beef and chilies.  And beer. 

Marinade for chuck roast:

• ½ Cup olive oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup lime juic2
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp ancho chili powder
• ¼ tsp green chili powder
• ½ tsp Mexican oregano
• ¼ tsp coriander

 For the Chili:

• 1 lb. stewing beef, or chuck roast, cut up into small pieces
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 large onion
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 5 dried New Mexico Chilies
• 4 dried guajillo chilies
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1 12 oz. bottle dark beer
• 1 Tbl Sorghum (Or molasses)
• ¼ Cup brown sugar
• 1 Tb cumin
• 1 tsp Mexican oregano
• 1 TB chili powder
• 1 tsp hot Hungarian paprika
• 1 Tbl Chipotle powder
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 TB salt
• 2 Tbl cocoa powder
• ¼ Cup Masa Harina (corn flour found with Mexican food in grocery store – do not substitute corn meal)

The Night before: 

 Salt and pepper the chuck stewing beef and toss with marinade.  Put in a plastic ziplock bag in the fridge and let it marinade over night.

The Next morning:

Cook some bacon for breakfast.  Leave the bacon fat in the pan.  Add a tbsp of butter and sauté onions, bell peppers and jalapeno pepper in that until it is soft and caramelized.  I like to season every layer of flavor so add a little salt and ancho chili powder to this so it turns a nice red color.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Cut off the stems of the dried chilies, cut open and dump out seeds.  Heat them in a dry pan for a few minutes, just to give some color, do not burn or char.  Add about a half a cup of water and bring to a boil, then turn off heat and let steep in water for about 5 minutes.  

Cut the chilies into smaller pieces.  I do this with scissors and just leave them in the water.  Blend the water and chilies until pureed.  Set aside.

Brown the chuck roast in the same pan you cooked the onions and peppers.  Cook on high heat to brown the edges.  Remove from pan. 

Brown the hamburger.  Add salt pepper and chili powder.  When hamburger is brown, add the onions and bell peppers and stir.  Add the chuck and the pureed peppers.  Add all the spices but the cocoa.  Add the brown sugar. 

Stir and bring to a boil.  Turn heat down and let it simmer about 15 minutes. Add a little beer if it gets too thick.

After 15 minutes, dump it all in a slow cooker plus the rest of the beer.  Cook about 3-4  hours, until chuck is very tender.  (Slow cookers vary as to how long it takes).

Add cocoa powder after an hour of cooking. 

When the chuck is tender, add Masa to about ¼ cup water and mix, then mix that into chili to thicken it.  Serve with cheese and sour cream. 

I Make really good Chili

This is the thing. I don't measure or follow recipes exactly. I just taste something and throw something else in that I think might be good. So when someone asks me for a recipe, it's kind of hard. But this is the general idea. This made a big pot in my cast iron kettle. I made it last night for our Lenten supper. I'm in Iowa so not many people ate it but the confirmation kids liked it.

I know there was a lot left over and was looking forward to leftovers. When I went downstairs after worship, my kettle was sparkling clean and no sign of chili in the fridge. I'm hoping it was the kids that ate it all and that they didn't throw out my chili.

Oh, yea. No beans. I hate beans. I guess you could add kidney beans if you really wanted.

Last night's version:

Couple of cloves garlic (this was the last bulb from last year's garden)
1 large sweet yellow onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
Usually, I had a jalapeno or two, but this was church so I skipped it.

1 can chopped tomatoes (in the summer it would be tomatoes from my garden)
2 cans tomato sauce (if I had any left over it would be my home canned sauce -from my garden of course)

Penzeys med hot chili powder
Celery salt
Penzeys ground ancho powder
Penzeys adobe seasoning
Penzeys Chipotle powder (this provides the heat - had to have some or it wouldn't be chili!)
Penzey's Southwest seasoning
(Normally I'd add Mexican oregano but I'm out of it)

1/2 bottle Samuel Adams Cream Stout (of course you should drink the other half)
1/4 cup brown sugar
a couple of shakes balsamic vinegar

2 lb cooked ground hamburger - but if you want a vegetarian version you can easily skip this. Drain the fat off first.

Olive oil

*I only buy my herbs and spices from Penzeys.


Heat the pan. Remember this - Hot pan, cold oil - food won't stick. Pour enough olive oil to cover the pan. Keep the heat low at first because garlic burns really easy. Throw in your garlic and saute that for a minute or so and add your onions and peppers. Saute for a while until onions are translucent. I add my spices at this point - I just think the onions with chili powder look pretty!
Add tomatoes. Shake a little balsamic vinegar over the veggies. Add tomato sauce and some of the sugar. Now taste it. You must taste your food while you are cooking it. I like sweet chili but you may not. A little sugar cuts that bitter tomato sauce taste but a teaspoon may be enough for you. You don't want your chili to taste like tomato sauce.

Let it simmer a while and let it get thick. Then add your beer. Add more chili powder. Taste it. You figure out what it needs. If you taste and add a little spice here, a little sugar there, water it down if it's too strong you will not ruin it. Don't be afraid. Make this YOUR chili.

Now turn it down low and simmer this for a few hours. Watch and stir it once in a while to make sure it doesn't get too thick. Go ahead and add a little water if it does. If you add meat, simmer it with the meat, that will give it more flavor.