I’ve been wanting to find a good, tried and true chili recipe for a while… a full-bore, proper chili that didn’t use chili powder or canned chili sauce.\u00a0 The kind of recipe that’s handed down from person to person, not found on the web.<\/p>\n
I finally got one.<\/p>\n
A coworker friend of mine had been boasting about his chili, and how his wife had this dynamite chili sauce that was made from scratch, and well, that sounded about right to me.\u00a0 The problem was that they hadn’t written anything down, they just made it “by feel”.\u00a0 When I asked for the recipe, he used it as a good excuse to make a batch of chili and take down notes.\u00a0 Those notes ended up in my inbox on Saturday.\u00a0 I cobbled together a more formal recipe from what he sent and promptly went shopping.<\/p>\n
Armed with this recipe I set to putting it all together, starting with the chili sauce.\u00a0 The sauce is simple, and flavorful, consisting of sauteed onions, dried peppers and broth simmered for the better part of an hour, then blended to within an inch of its life then strained.\u00a0 It’s thick, dark and powerful stuff… precisely as it should be.\u00a0 This is the key to a good chili — this is the make or break part.<\/p>\n
The second part, the actual chili, is straightforward as well.\u00a0 Cubed stew meat, after being browned off, is combined with sauteed onions and garlic, seasonings and some water or broth, then allowed to simmer until tender.\u00a0 The rest of the ingredients are added, as is the chili sauce.\u00a0 Adjust the seasonings and heat to suit your tastes, then cut the heat to low and abandon all hopes of eating it for at least 5 or 6 hours.\u00a0 Allow the whole melange to simmer slowly and thicken up, further tenderizing the meat and letting all those flavors co-mingle and mature.<\/p>\n
Your patience will be rewarded.<\/p>\n
Eleven people demolished 6\u00bd quarts of chili, 2 loaves of fresh bread, and a pot of rice in record time.\u00a0 It was worth every minute of bloating that came afterward.<\/p>\n