Monday’s Recipe

| February 22, 2021

Easy Chili

An easy, one pot chili, and this recipe has beans. Flame on.

You’ll Need:
2 pounds ground beef

2 cloves garlic, chopped

One 8-ounce can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 cup masa harina*

One 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

One 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Shredded Cheddar, for serving

Chopped onions, for serving

Tortilla chips, for serving

Lime wedges, for serving

You’ll Do:
1) Place the ground beef in a large pot and throw in the garlic. Cook over medium heat until browned. Drain off the excess fat, and then pour in the tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and cayenne. Stir together well, cover, and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. If the mixture becomes overly dry, add 1/2 cup water at a time as needed.

2) After an hour, place the masa harina in a small bowl. Add 1/2 cup water and stir together with a fork. Dump the masa mixture into the chili. Stir together well, and then taste and adjust the seasonings. Add more masa paste and/or water to get the chili to your preferred consistency, or to add more corn flavor. Add the beans and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with shredded Cheddar, chopped onions, tortilla chips and lime wedges.

*Masa who? If unavailable, corn meal works fine. Hat tip to Ree Drummond for the link.

Category: Cooking

6 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
KoB

“Flame on” heh heh FIRST thing that went thru my mind when I saw the pic before I scrolled far enough down for the narrative. PLUS, a recipe calling for the use of *shudder…the HORROR* “Grounded beef beast”. To add insult to that injury, as you and Ex have pointed out soooooo many times, recipes are for guidelines only. There are those that will use grounded up chicken, turkey, and even “gasp…Pearl Clutch” Bambi and Bison.

Masa? Ain’t he the dude that tells the overseer what the plantation workers is supposed to do? And wouldn’t another term for that be “Democrat”?

I guess them tortilla chips gonna take the place of a cast iron skillet of good buttered milk cornbread. Well, I reckon so, after all, it IS a chili recipe with beans…and grounded beef beast. (ducks a thrown dipping ladle)

Tanks Matey! Let’s Eat!

David

Kinda light on the hot bits, isn’t it? Season to taste… too, if you like “native hot” Thai and Indian, chili can be kinda tame.

OWB

Eat your food any way you want it. The cook gets to choose. Simple as that.

Want beans with your chili? Fine by me. Just call it what it is – chili with beans. Or chili soup. (That excuses the addition of tomatoes, too.)

Doubt that most folks who were around when chili was invented had grinders or tomatoes. It was often served with beans on the side, according to the ancestors. Trail cooks served beans pretty much at every meal.

gitarcarver

For those who like to cook under pressure…. Texas Style Chili Ingredients 1 cup canned fire-roasted tomatoes 1 tbsp chopped canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce 2 Corn tortillas 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 cup chopped onion 3 garlic cloves minced 1 lb 90% lean ground beef 3 tsp Mexican red chile powder 2 tsp ground cumin 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 cup Water optional shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican cheese blend Instructions In a blender, combine the tomatoes, chipotle chile, and tortillas. Blend until smooth. Select SAUTÉ/Normal on the Instant Pot. When the pot is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds. Add the ground beef and break up with a wooden spoon. Add the chile powder, cumin, salt, and oregano. Allow the spices to bloom, about 30 seconds. Add the blender mixture. Rinse the blender using the water, and pour that into the pot. Secure the lid on the pot. Close the pressure-release valve. Select MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK and set the pot at HIGH pressure for 10 minutes. At the end of the cooking time, allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes, then release any remaining pressure. Stir well to combine. Top servings with shredded cheese, if desired. source: https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/texas-style-chili/ Certainly chili can be made “hotter” and or “spicier” by adding whatever you want in the way of peppers, sirachi, hot sauce, or Gochujang. The trick is not to make the chili “hot” but to make it hot with a depth of flavor. Anyone can make something that burns your mouth and makes you sweat, but the trick is making it so there is a depth of flavor and heat. By the way, one of the easiest “hot” things I ever made was to take a ghost pepper, grind it in a food processor, and then add it to kosher salt in a mason jar. (I used a pint jar.) For a couple of weeks, shake it so the pepper gets distributed and then use. The salt takes on… Read more »

Ex-PH2

If you can’t find masa harina (corn flour) at the store, you can mash beans into a sloppy pulpe and use that as a thickener.

Adjust HEAT levels to your personal taste. Cumin is KING in Tex-Mex cooking. And you can make a totes fine tortilla soup by just leaving out the beans, if you don’t have any.

Good recipe, good stuff on a cold winter day. And Spring will be here soon, too!

Sea Dragon

For this kind of cooking, I like to roast cumin seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant and then grind them up. Added to the recipe, they are much richer.