How do you Chili?

So now that I have all the huge pots for brewing, im making some chili recipe's on the side. I think I may enter my nuclear meltdown chili into the beer & chili contest my hometown holds. Anywho, does anyone make chili too? Any good recipes to pass along?

I don't have any recipes, but I've found that alcohol makes for good chili. I usually put a bit of vodka in mine, which burns the alcohol out but leaves that hot kick you get from hard alcohol.

A boss of mine made Tequila chili since he was from south Texas and it was AWESOME!!!

My SWMBO made this recipe a couple times and it's been great. The two key ingredients are a hint of cocoa powder and a good beer. She used a Guinness the first batch and my HB stout for the second batch.

1/2 cup brown sugar. That seems a bit high, but it looks good. I'd dump the lean ground beef and use plain old roast. I've made this and it's very good as well:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_28277,00.html

Up the chipolte and jalapeno to your own taste.

I always put a bottle of Guinness in mine, I also put in a small amount of ground pork along with the beef. The fat is slightly different in pork and keeps the chili a little more solid and substantial.

Arneba28 said:

I also put in a small amount of ground pork along with the beef. The fat is slightly different in pork and keeps the chili a little more solid and substantial.

Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. I may try that, but I'll use unground pork.

I always put beer and cocoa powder in mine. Sounds strange but it's yummy!

I made some chili last night, I put in 4 lbs of sausage and ground beef. Needless to say, there are leftovers. Delicious!

Usually the standard ground beef/venison for the meat browned with some chopped fresh garlic and cilantro.

White chilis (seed in) for the heat, red and green sweet peppers, fresh tomatoes, some white onion, a decent mix of pinto and black beans, ground cumin and chili powder. Sometimes Ill put a bit of whatever white wine Ive got laying around in if its too thick.

Its pretty standard but I let it simmer in the crock pot on low overnight and its good to go.

Three tips:

1. Dont just use ground beef. You can get so much more flavor and texture if you use 50% beef and 50% something else. I like pork. Although I have used ground turkey too and people LOVED it.

2. Make your own chili powder. It is easy to do and you can do it with ingredients at your local store. Look it up on the internet, it is easy.

3. Use a nice dark beer for a good chunk of the liquid.

Mmm, I love chili! Here is my recipe, I found a recipe online somewhere that looked good and I used that for a base - took out and added a bunch of stuff over the course of 5 or 6 batches to make it mine. I'm really happy with the results - good heat, good melding of flavors, subtle hint of beer and bourbon. Goes great with cornbread and a nice stout/good whiskey!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chopped red onion (about 1 medium)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 small)
1.5 lbs. extra lean ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 seeded and chopped jalapeno pepper
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 15.5 oz. can red kidney beans, drained
1 15.5 oz. can northern or pinto beans, drained
2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 12 oz. bottle of beer (darker is better)
1/8 cup bourbon
1/2 lime
Plenty of sour cream & sharp cheddar cheese
Lime slices

Preparation
Combine pepper, onion, ground beef, garlic and jalapeno in pan, cook until beef is browned, drain. Transfer to pot, add chili powder, cumin, sugar, cayenne and salt, cook 1 minute. Add oregano, beans, diced tomatoes, beer, & bourbon. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Squeeze in lime juice from half lime, stir, and serve. Top with plenty of cheddar cheese, sour cream, and garnish with a lime slice.

Decent amount of heat, if you want a little less add only half of the jalapeno.

I always try to roast some fresh chilies in addition to the chili powder. Jalapenos, Anaheims, Seranos, whatever seems to be fresh at the store. I usually buy a couple of several to mix up the heat and flavors. Roast them over the stove burner or the broiler, let them steam in a paper bag for a few munites, peel the skins off of them and then seed them and chop up fine. It usually ends up to about a half cup of fresh chiles.

I always just sorta wing it. I use canned, diced tomatoes including all the liquid as a base. If I have porter or stout on hand, I'll throw that in, too. I like to use a nice looking roast, cut into chunks, as the bulk of the meat. I usually add a few slices of crumbled bacon and perhaps some ground beef. Roasted peppers or even chipotle chiles are always nice. Plenty of chili powder and some fresh jalapeños or other spicy chiles provide the bulk of the spice flavor and heat. A little cumin and a tiny dash of cinnamon add complexity to the flavor, but too much of either make for some strong, odd flavors. I like to slow cook mine all day and serve it with shredded cheddar and cornbread.

This is my "less is more"approach:

cubed beef
diced, canned tomatoes
dried chilis, ground in coffee mill
masa
beer

sometimes onions, beans

cook 5+ hours in Dutch oven

I worked out a recipe that I could use some of my red ale that's going into bottles tomorrow in.
2lbs lean pork
1/2 lb chopped bacon
1-2 yellow onions
1/2 head garlic(i really like garlic)
some red ale to deglaze
tomato paste
stewed diced tomatoes
chili powder
cumin
a little oregano
roasted & skinned/seeded poblano pepper
if it needs more liquid, I have some homemade chicken stock
Garnished with sour cream, cheese, and freshly chopped cilantro

Ok I'll post up my 'recipe' that i used this weekend... I made about 10 quarts of chili...

left over smoked pork and turkey
1 big can of tomatos
2 cans beef broth
2 12-oz home brews (one was a cali commom and one was a brown)
3 cans beans (one each of: kidney, small red, black)
4 onions
6 cloves garlic
chili powder
cumin
salt
pepper
oregano
parsely
paprika
unsweetened cocoa
coffee

this simmered all day Saturday uncovered. Just had some for lunch and it was very yummy.

I don't really get too crazy with mine. The 2 non-traditional things I add every time though, are Porter and cinnamon...

Well I dont really measure but here I go

3lbs of meat browned
2 big cans of tomato sauce
2 big cans of red kidney beans
1 small of black beans
1 small White kidney
1/2 Honeybear
Chili powder
few cruched dried chipotle chiles
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 finely minced as possible red habaneros
Maybe half a beer-
spoon of minced Garlic

Cook in crock pot for 8hrs
Serve over white rice

Melana said:

Ok I'll post up my 'recipe' that i used this weekend... I made about 10 quarts of chili...

left over smoked pork and turkey
1 big can of tomatos
2 cans beef broth
2 12-oz home brews (one was a cali commom and one was a brown)
3 cans beans (one each of: kidney, small red, black)
4 onions
6 cloves garlic
chili powder
cumin
salt
pepper
oregano
parsely
paprika
unsweetened cocoa
coffee

this simmered all day Saturday uncovered. Just had some for lunch and it was very yummy.

Click to expand...

It was very good even with out beef.

I usually don't get excited about vegetarian dishes, especially those that are usually centered around meat. However, SWMBO and I are trying to lose some pounds, and one of the things we've found to be tasty and somewhat healthy is vegetarian chile. The pre-made canned stuff is awful, so I made my own. It's really simple - just dump the contents of each of these into a 13x9 inch baking pan (drain and discard the liquid from the onions, add the liquid from the rest of the cans/jars):

1 small jar pearl onions, drained
1 small jar roasted red peppers
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans with jalapeños added
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes

Shake chili powder over the mixture until its got a liberal dusting. Add a few shakes of garlic salt (or a few cloves of garlic), black pepper, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Salt to taste.

Cover, and cook at least 4 hours in a 225 degree oven...tasty!

Substitute fresh ingredients to your heart's content.

My only interesting additions are coffee, bacon, pork sausage, and great northern beans.

In New Mexico there is chili (hamburger, cumin and beans) and CHILE (red or green?) I will take the chile over the chili anytime.