Culinary Disasters

Nothing screams good fall night like a spicy dish of chili.  The problem with doing a chili recipe is everyone is going to have a million different variations that they want to add in.  Some people like beans other hate beans.  Some people believe in chocolate, celery, and carrots where others would hang you for even consider those. 

For this chili dish I decided to make chili in a way I have not done in ages and is more of a traditional way.

One thing I refuse to bend on is store bought chili powder.  It is horrendous and should never be purchased especially when chili powder is so simple and easy to make.  Plus by making your own you can adjust the flavors exactly to where you want them.

For this chili powder you will need:

• 3 ancho chili peppers
• 3 dried new mexico chili pepper
• 2 tb cumin (if you have cumin seeds toast them in a unoiled skillet for 45 minutes and then grind)
• 1 tb oregeno
• 1 tb cayenne (if you don’t like it as spicy use less)

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and place the ancho and new mexico in an uncovered ovensafe dish and place in the oven for 5 minutes.  Even though they are dried this will help dry them out further.  I also like to remove the stem and shake out any seeds before putting them in the oven.

After they are done get out your coffee grinder.  The chilis should be very hard and easy to break just with your hands.  Shred them into a couple of pieces and discard any seeds.  Place them in the spice grinder and take them for a spin till they are powder.

After they are a powder move to another bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients and set aside. 

Now time to turn towads getting the chili done.  For this we are going to need:

• 2 lbs of beef chuck roast
• 4 slices of bacon
• 1 onion finely diced
• 2 jalapenos finely diced
• 4 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 1 TB of tomato paste
• 3 cups plus 2 tb water
• 1/2 cup of the chili powder
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 2 tb cornmeal

If you like to lay your stuff out in bowls everything should be individual except for the garlic and jalapeno since they will go in at the same time.

 I like to use chuck roast for this dish because it is a tender piece of meat and well I have a hatred of ground beef in general.  Cut the beef in bitesize cubes. 

Now that everything is laid out and ready to go get the bacon going over high heat. 

Once the bacon is done, remove, cut into bite size pieces, and set aside.  Keep the bacon grease in the pan and add in 1/2 of the beef.  We want to do this in batches so the meat can get browned.  Cook until browned and remove.

Add in the onion and a pinch of salt.  Cook over high heat till soft (3-5 minutes).

Once the onion is done stir in the jalapenos and garlic.  Cook for 45-60 seconds.

After that in 1 cup of the water, chili powder, and tomato paste.  Stir to incorporate.

Readd the bacon, beef, and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer.

We want to cook this for about 2 hours till all the water is close to gone. 

Once the water is close to being gone dissolve the 2 tb of cornmeal with a little bit of water in a cup (this is called a slurry).  Slowly add this to the mixture and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes to thicken up the remaining sauce.  Picture below is close the constistancy I like to add the cornmeal slurry. 

Serve and enjoy.

Tags: beef, pork, All //