Friday Cooking
A classic one-pot meal, it’s hard to beat a hearty chili. I use this recipe as a guide line, so consider this a starting point and adjust to your liking.
Easy Chili
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, or white corn flour
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:
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.
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.
A halved habo pepper has been known to fall into the pot when I’m cooking this, to be fished out before service. Also about 1/4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (trust me).
Serve with ice cold cervesa, a bold red wine, or iced tea. Cheesy corn bread is another option on the side. For the no-beans crowd, I’m making chili, not spaghetti sauce. YMMV, enjoy!
Category: Cooking
Beans. That’s not chili.
Exactly. If there are beans in it, it is beans with chili meat.
Nope, not true according to the folks who came up with the concoction in the first place.
See my reason below.
Years ago when I was working nights, I decided to make chili using bagged pinto beans not knowing that they had to be soaked overnight before cooking so when we went out to the airport, I brought the chili into the airlines employee kitchen, ping pong and TV room and the pinto beans were like eating planters peanuts.
Jeff, that soaking and draining business is about removing chemical compounds in the skins called antinutrients which interfere with human absorption of the beans’natural nutrients.
I don’t soak…just cook on low heat for hours and hours, the Mexican method, which according to some sources accomplishes the same thing and results in very tasty beans.
This Tex-ass fight over beans/no beans in chili again. This is the United States not the United Republics, getouttahere!
All kidding aside, I’m def putting this on the menu this weekend! Perfect CHILI weather as I have a fridge full of beers.
Thanks Ex!
Oops, brought to us by The HMFIC. My b.
No harm no foul, Roh-Dog. The HMFIC here goes by “Hardin.”
No harm, no fowl, Ed…just ground beef.
Regarding the argument as to beans or no beans, chili originated long ago in Northern Mexico and South Texas and the full, traditional name is “chili con carne.”
Con carne means “with meat” in Spanish, the implication being that the basic dish of chili is a BEANS base dish to which meat is added. In authentic Mexican restaurants you’ll find it both ways, with the no-beans version being used primarily as a spicy meat topping for cheese enchiladas, tamales, nachos and other dishes.
Couple of points on your formula, Ed. You don’t add onions to the cooking base? My chili has at least half a large onion chopped in thumbnail sized pieces in there from the get-go and it’s served with large slices of sweet raw yellow onion. Heavy onion content is a “gringo” convention as “onion breath” is considered highly offensive by many Mexicans.
Second, I see you rightfully use cumin, or comino as the Mexicans call it, which I do as well but I also add copious amounts of very coarsely chopped, wait for it…the dreaded fresh cilantro, both to simmer within the base and as a serving garnish on top of the cheddar or Monterey Jack.
Last, my chili con carne always contains a a small can of mild chopped green chiles, also dumped in the base at the outset. Sliced mild jalapenos are served as an accompaniment. Mezzetta’s Deli-Sliced “Tamed” jalapeno slices (available at Walmart) are the best we’ve found for retaining that unique flavor without the mouth-numbing heat.
You should try the semi-sweet chocolate trick. Mexicans use it in many dishes- its not sweet, and adds a nice depth of flavor in the chili’s background. After you try it, you’ll miss it if it’s left out.
This is more of a starter recipe. There are as many chili versions as there are chili cooks.
Mole poblano is the isht!
Considered the National Dish of our southern neighbors!
Yeah, tried it decades ago when we lived in South Texas and didn’t care for the taste. I’ve never been able to get into that whole mole thing.
It’s chili con carne where I come from. And some guy to the sunrise direction of me brought this recipe.
I usually start a pot of chili with chorizo sausage as the main flavor source, and go from there. Good stuff on a cold night, and we’re having a lot of them these days.
Lubs me some chili wid beans and chili wid out beans. Been know to spread the without beans over a grilled sausage dawg on a toasted bun. Been know to chop up some grilled all beef Nathans or even Ball Park Angus in a crocked pot full of beaned chili.
Pass me that cornbread if you will, please.
Tanks Bro!
I like various kinds of sausage pieces in my chili con carne, too, KOB. Unfortunately, my little West Texas sweet thang, not so much–so it’s a rarity around these parts.
Have you tried it on fried eggs? Scrambled? All good…
Huevos rancheros. Thanks Poe. You just gave me next Friday’s recipe.
Sta bueno! But keep in mind, traditional huevos rancheros is a salsa topping on fried eggs. Not certain but I think the eggs and chili dish is called chili con carne con huevos. Do both.
And don’t forget that fresh cilantro is essential for authentic salsa…Heh.
By the way, for those who don’t know, huevos, Spanish for eggs, is pronounced “way-wose” and is also a common slang term for testicles, so be careful how you use it.
Yepper, toasted English muffin, some good cheddar, fried egg, topped with the con carne. Hell, I like cholesterol…AND fat grams. There’s a little Georgia Peach that tolerates me on occasion because of that cute 2 scooper butt I got and that fine F150 that’s the same way. Sometimes I’ll dial a recipe back a little, other times I’ll just make two different pots. Needless to say, I will use grounded pork beast rather often instead of grounded beef beast. And I never met a sausage I didn’t eat. Some pretty good sausage makers around here that don’t overload it with spices and sage.
For all the Instant Potters (or equivalent)….
https://ohsweetbasil.com/instant-pot-award-winning-chili-recipe/
Thanks!
AW1Ed,
I asked the last round of cooking if anyone had an IP and was answered with “yes, a Ninja cooker and it is great.”
If you don’t mind, I would like to make it so anytime you put up a recipe, I’ll hunt down the IP / Ninja / pressure cooking equivalent if it is out there and post the recipe or the link.
I don’t want to add to your burden because I know how hard it is to write posts, and I don’t want anyone to think that I am trying to usurp what the cooking threads are doing. If you say “no thanks,” I am good with that.
Chili (with an “i”) is one of the things that is made great because of cooking low and slow as in the recipe you posted or with pressure that infuses the flavors but it much faster.
So, great choice today and I hope you understand where I am coming from.
Thanks!
Absolutely no problem with any of this. Pressure cookers lend themselves really well to soups, stews and yes, chili. I’ll keep this in mind when looking for Friday’s recipes.
Put myself in for huevos rancheros for next week, which really aren’t pressure cooker friendly.
Thanks for the offer, gc.
I was not a big fan of huevos rancheros until someone recommended me trying them in the IP.
Now I love ’em. 🙂
You post it and I’ll follow it up in the comments if that is the way you want to go.
It’s a rainy night here in Florida and I just finished the last portion I had of IP lasagna. It was perfect for the night, if you know what I mean. (no precooking the noodles!)
Thanks again!
I knew posting a chili recipe (with an “i”) would cause a fight between the the purists and the realists. I’m agnostic on the subject, liking both, but as stated this is a starter recipe, adjust to your own liking. So if some of you die-hard purists want to add a recipe of your own, bring it.
What should matter is what people like. Period. End of sentence. End of story.
The line “with an ‘i'” comes from an old Good Eats show where he makes chili. The two main characters are cowpokes and they run around finding ingredients and cooking but every time one says the word “chile” the other says “with an ‘i'” or “with an ‘e'” in order to make sure people aren’t confused between the vegetable and the dish. It’s the running gag of the show.
When we talk chili around here and amongst friends, as we were all big fans of the show, the moment someone says “chili,” the rest of the people will say “with an ‘i'” or “with an ‘e'” when appropriate.
My comment was an homage to that show, and not a “spelling nazi” thing (not that you took it that way.
The other thing that people should be aware of is that you don’t want to use old beans in your chili (with an ‘i'”)
No sir. You want to make sure there are no has beans in your chili.
(with an “i” of course.)
😉
Long time AB fan, and instantly caught the ‘reference.’ With an “e”.
*grin*
I was “dragged” to one of two tapings the Good Eats 10th anniversary special at the Cobb Energy Center in Atlanta by the ex. I enjoy the show and it was a great performance (but I was lucky the bar was serving drinks. It’s hard to do that kind of thing live)
I missed the banter til you said something. Thanks for letting us in!
You might want to use Mexican oregano instead of European (Greek). It’s stronger and blends better with the cumin flavor.
Hamburger is fine to a point.
I do about a pound of that to 2-3 pounds of sirloin.
Makes all the difference in the world.
Maybe next week I’ll throw in my green (pork) chili recipe.