07-25-2020, 02:30 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-25-2020, 12:32 PM by CLG Rampage.)
With you guys smashing past the $250 mark, I promised some cooking. So, here we go! This is a recipe for chili con carne, a meaty, spicy, delicious chili I've made several times. This is the recipe I've settled on after several batches, but you can add or remove stuff as you see fit. So, let's get started!
These are the ingredients you'll need for the recipe:
-Dried peppers, seeds removed and cut into small pieces (I used pascilla and new mexico chiles, I would add ancho chiles but I couldn't find any at the grocery store)
-Garlic
-Onion
-Beef, preferably something like short rib or brisket
-Allspice
-Cumin
-Paprika, preferably smoked paprika
-Oregano
-Cinnamon
-2 tbps Corn flour, preferably masa harina (instant corn flour, basically)
-A carton of Chicken stock
-Beer (optional)
-Lime (optional)
-Tomato paste (optional)
You might be asking, "What about amounts?" Well, I think you should be in control of how much you add of each ingredient. You might want more garlic, less cumin, etc etc. A good baseline is maybe a half a dozen to a dozen dried peppers, depending on how spicy you like it, about 2-3 pounds of your beef of choice and 4 cloves of garlic. Add more or less of each ingredient and experiment. This is more like a guideline rather than a strict framework for you all to follow.
Anyways! To start our prep, get your peppers cut up into smaller pieces and de-seed them to the best of your ability. Remove the skin from your garlic as well. Take your pepper pieces and drop them into a dry skillet over medium heat, like so.
Let those toast until they smell amazing, then cover them with chicken stock. Cover the pan and take it off the heat to let the peppers steep in the chicken stock for about 10-15 minutes.
With all that done, cut up your onion into relatively small pieces, you don't have to be super precise since they're gonna stew for a long time (also don't slice open your finger like me). Into a blender, add your chilis and their soaking liquid, plus the garlic and the spices listed above. Optionally, add in a good sized squeeze of tomato paste. Blend until smooth, then taste and adjust it until you like it. I added a tiny amount of brown sugar to mine to round out the heat a little bit.
With your chili paste ready, it's time to prep your meat. I chose a nice, fatty piece of beef brisket, but any meat that does well in stews should work. Trim off any big chunks of fat and silverskin, then cut the meat into 0.5-1 inch chunks.
Take about half of your meat, and set it aside. Take whatever pot you're going to use for the chili itself, I like a big, heavy dutch oven, and set it over medium-high heat with some oil inside. With the other half of the meat, start browning it in a few batches, until every piece has some nice brown bits on the outside. You won't need to brown all the meat, but it's something you can do nonetheless.
Set the browned pieces aside, and dump the chopped up onion into the fond left in the pot and let it sweat for a minute or so. Optionally, you can deglaze the pan with some beer, but chicken stock works fine as well. Whatever liquid you use, pour it in and scrape up all the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Add back all of your beef, the rest of the beer if you used it and the enough chicken stock to cover almost everything inside the pot. Add in your chili paste along with a few tablespoons of corn flour, then stir everything well.
Stir every few minutes and let it simmer over low heat for a couple of hours until thickened. Taste for seasoning, my recipe needed some more salt, a tiny pinch of sugar and the optional lime.
Serve hot from the pot with sour cream, lime, cheese, whatever you like to put on top of chili! And don't be afraid to experiment with the recipe! If you want extra heat, add a jalapeno to the chili paste. If you want a little more sweet, add a few tablespoons of dark brown sugar to the chili. Experiment, and enjoy some delicious chili!
These are the ingredients you'll need for the recipe:
-Dried peppers, seeds removed and cut into small pieces (I used pascilla and new mexico chiles, I would add ancho chiles but I couldn't find any at the grocery store)
-Garlic
-Onion
-Beef, preferably something like short rib or brisket
-Allspice
-Cumin
-Paprika, preferably smoked paprika
-Oregano
-Cinnamon
-2 tbps Corn flour, preferably masa harina (instant corn flour, basically)
-A carton of Chicken stock
-Beer (optional)
-Lime (optional)
-Tomato paste (optional)
You might be asking, "What about amounts?" Well, I think you should be in control of how much you add of each ingredient. You might want more garlic, less cumin, etc etc. A good baseline is maybe a half a dozen to a dozen dried peppers, depending on how spicy you like it, about 2-3 pounds of your beef of choice and 4 cloves of garlic. Add more or less of each ingredient and experiment. This is more like a guideline rather than a strict framework for you all to follow.
Anyways! To start our prep, get your peppers cut up into smaller pieces and de-seed them to the best of your ability. Remove the skin from your garlic as well. Take your pepper pieces and drop them into a dry skillet over medium heat, like so.
Let those toast until they smell amazing, then cover them with chicken stock. Cover the pan and take it off the heat to let the peppers steep in the chicken stock for about 10-15 minutes.
With all that done, cut up your onion into relatively small pieces, you don't have to be super precise since they're gonna stew for a long time (also don't slice open your finger like me). Into a blender, add your chilis and their soaking liquid, plus the garlic and the spices listed above. Optionally, add in a good sized squeeze of tomato paste. Blend until smooth, then taste and adjust it until you like it. I added a tiny amount of brown sugar to mine to round out the heat a little bit.
With your chili paste ready, it's time to prep your meat. I chose a nice, fatty piece of beef brisket, but any meat that does well in stews should work. Trim off any big chunks of fat and silverskin, then cut the meat into 0.5-1 inch chunks.
Take about half of your meat, and set it aside. Take whatever pot you're going to use for the chili itself, I like a big, heavy dutch oven, and set it over medium-high heat with some oil inside. With the other half of the meat, start browning it in a few batches, until every piece has some nice brown bits on the outside. You won't need to brown all the meat, but it's something you can do nonetheless.
Set the browned pieces aside, and dump the chopped up onion into the fond left in the pot and let it sweat for a minute or so. Optionally, you can deglaze the pan with some beer, but chicken stock works fine as well. Whatever liquid you use, pour it in and scrape up all the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Add back all of your beef, the rest of the beer if you used it and the enough chicken stock to cover almost everything inside the pot. Add in your chili paste along with a few tablespoons of corn flour, then stir everything well.
Stir every few minutes and let it simmer over low heat for a couple of hours until thickened. Taste for seasoning, my recipe needed some more salt, a tiny pinch of sugar and the optional lime.
Serve hot from the pot with sour cream, lime, cheese, whatever you like to put on top of chili! And don't be afraid to experiment with the recipe! If you want extra heat, add a jalapeno to the chili paste. If you want a little more sweet, add a few tablespoons of dark brown sugar to the chili. Experiment, and enjoy some delicious chili!