Hmm, had pot paranoia lately?

1 pound ground sirloin (crumble fried), 1 can diced tomatoes (plus juice), 1 can kidney beans (plus juice), 1 oz Tampico prepared chili, garlic (optional). Simmer over lowest heat until the beans just start to break down.

Garnish with chopped raw onion. Serve with saltines.

It's hard to beat the basics.

Do I?!?

I won three regional chile cookoffs with my first recipe... and two with the other one.

You like Tex-Mex, or northern New Mexican?

I love em all postmodernmillie.
and I think I love u.

Okay, I'm going to give you my first recipe - it was a big hit with tourists from Ohio and such and people who didn't *think* they would care for chile to begin with. Or so they thought. This recipe is in pared-down cookoff proportions, about a two-gallon potful. It's not too spicy, but it lets you know, honey, this is chile.

4 lbs. beef shoulder roast (ask the butcher to put it through the large grinder once and once only)
1 T. canola oil
14 T. chile powder (please use Chimayo, if you have access to it)
3 t. cumin
3 t. paprika
3 1/2 t. salt (more or less)
1 1/2 t. oregano
2 t. garlic powder
2 t. onion powder
10 oz. can Ro-Tel, put through a blender briefly
16 oz. canned tomato sauce (if you want it really thick, use canned tomato puree)
water or beer (Negra Modelo is thee perfect liquid for this)
One head of garlic


In a large, non-cast-iron stew pot, heat oil over high heat. Cook meat until grey, not brown. Add chile powder, cumin, paprika, salt, oregano, garlic and onion powder, Ro-Tel, and tomato sauce. Add enough water or beer to make mixture soupy. Drop in the head of garlic. Boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook, covered, about two hours. Stir just often enough to create the impression that you know what you're doing. Before serving, remove the head of garlic with a slotted spoon.

Chicks may dig scars, but they fucking love this chile. Serve with heated tortillas, lightly buttered, with candles and a good wine. Bon chance.

groovy.
ready to stop smoking other than pot, meat and chilis?

First you start with some soup bones, stick them under the broiler and turn them when they start getting brown, when all sides are brown but them in a slow cooker or large stock pot with enough water to cover them.

If you are normal (read: not Texan) add a pound of beans [pintos, kidney, great northern {I like to mix em}].
Add bay leaves, cumin and other spices to taste (must include at least 6 Tbs. chili powder and I like a couple Tbs. Paprika;) let cook five or six hours. Remove bones.

Fry up some ground sirloin with half as much onion plus a head of garlic, when it's all brown kill it with a big can of purred tomatoes. Add that to the pot and cook for another two hours at least. Let cool and refrigerate.

To serve ladle out a bowl, add a Tbs. of water, top with grated cheddar cheese and put under the broiler till cheese is melty.

Oh, depending on your cooking temp, you might need to add a bit of water from time to time. It's a good idea to babysit this chile and check its temperament regularly.

Uh. 'Scuse me, mr t., but I was under the impression that beans were a Texan addition.

Are "purred tomatoes" those that have passed Mr. Whiskers' inspection? :-)

pmm - what is Ro-Tel?

I know tomatos are not normally purred, but hey, wouldn't you like to get purred?

Ro_Tel is a canned tomato-chile mixture (crucial to true chile con queso) available in most supermarkets.

If you don't have it where you live, you could probably get away with putting one can of peeled whole green chile in a blender with a half can of whole tomatoes. And if you don't have access to canned chiles, I suppose jalapenos would do.

Thanks for clearing up the Ro-Tel mystery. I had a vague memory of it from when I lived in California, but wasn't quite sure.

Well Millie, I am a Californian and all things Texass are anathema. Chili, to my knowledge, originates from Texas/Mexico border area and in it's original form came sans frijoles. Chili California style always comes with beans.

Wouldn't that be sin frijoles?

I might add that chili was made famous by chefs here in Cali in Hollywood around the thirties and forties and my recipe is loosely based on the work of the chef at the Brown Derby.

Here's miguel's lovely recipe for Portuguese Chili Com Carne.

You'll need a gallon crockpot and some free time for this one.

42 oz. diced tomatos (28 + 14 oz. cans)
12 oz. beef broth
6 oz. beer
2 med. white onions, chopped
3-8 cloves garlic, diced or pressed (whatever you like)
4 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, chopped
2 poblanos, s/s/c
2-4 serranos, s/s/c
3lb stew beef, chunked or chopped, browned & drained
(substitute a lb w/kielbasa, chorizo, etc., if you like)
1-2 tbps adobo sauce if you like
1/2 lime squeezed over the proceedings & tossed into pot

stir well, cover. Cook on Low for 5 hours.

add after five hours: (play with this)
1.5 tbps cumin
2 tsp salt
5 tbps chili powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cayenne powder
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp tabasco sauce

stir well, cover. Cook one more hour on low. Serve w/ sour cream & cheese if desired. Don't try to eat the lime. (Also, you can cook on high and add spices after 2 or 3 hours.)

This approach has a number of advantages. Provided you don't carry tapeworms, you should realize 6-10 servings out of it. It fills your house with a nice aroma. Most of all, you'll spend the rest of the day on the couch responding to pleas for help with chores, etc., with some variation of "I'm cooking, goddamnit!"

Holding off 'til the last hour on the spices assumes they're powdered/dried, and not fresh.

As long as you don't overstuff the pot, this is a tough one to fuck up. No need to hover over it.

2 cans Goya black beans
2 cans Bush’s chili beans in hot sauce
1 7oz can of Goya chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 C. frozen corn
2 C. diced bell pepper
#.75 ground sirloin or .75 C. TVP if you’re veggie
1 habanero pepper
hot sauce
3 T. chili powder
1 T. guajillo chili powder
2 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. cinnamon
shredded cheese to serve
fresh cilantro, chopped to serve
fresh lime slices to serve

When browning the sirloin, mix in a healthy amount of hot sauce. Put all the other ingredients in a big pot and mix well. Don’t chop up the habanero. Just let it cook in the chili and pluck it out and toss it before you eat. Best accompanied by peanut butter sammiches.

This was the best chili I’ve ever made. It is nice and hot, but not overpowering. It is a sweet-hot as well and the heat doesn’t impugn the taste. Definitely a recipe to keep, and likely tweak a bit. A chili recipe is never perfected.

Red Rocket Chili. It was my first attempt ever at making chili. It won 3rd place (out of 11 entries) in a chili cookoff, and also won the Most Traditional Recipe award.

Don't forget about the askme chili threads here and here.

Man alive, now I want to make some chili this weekend.

And that sounds like a great Saturday afternoon project with the, um, boyfriend-type guy.

I put cocoa in mine. No one knows what it is, but everyone can tell I have a secret ingredient and asks.
I am also a Yankee heathen who uses ground beef, though, so don't take my word for it.

No sane person puts beans in their chili. Only people who don't know what chili is do.

Putting beans in chili is like putting beans in New England Clam Chowder---you can do it, but it isn't the way it supposed to be made.

/Texas chili purist rant

And don't trust any chili recipe to be great unless it has masa in it.

Here is the chili recipe, based on the world's greatest chili cooker Wick Fowler's style:


2 lbs ground sirloin, ground for chili/stew --the better the meat, the better. We tried ground tenderloin once. Wow.
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce (not paste)
2 cups water
2 teaspoons paprika
4 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup chili powder
1 teaspoon ground red pepper/Chimayo (you can use more or different peppers if you want more of a kick)
2 tablespoons masa harina
1/4 cup hot water

Brown the beef, and then drain.

Add in everything except the last two ingredients (masa and 1/4 cup hot water).

Cover and simmer on low to medium-low for 30 minutes.

This gets the flavor going.

Then add the masa to the 1/4 cup hot water to make a pasty like substance. Add this to the chili.

Then cover and simmer for another 20 minutes.

The masa is the key because it thickens the chili. Some people are under the delusion that chili is suppose to be soupy. That isn't the case.

The masa gives it the perfect consistency: that nice really thick, velvety texture.

Then, you add in some copped onions and cheddar cheese. Serve over tamales or in tortillas or just in a bowl.

That is chili. The other chili-esque recipes are something else.

Wow, masa. I'll have to try that. Actually, all of these recipes sound fantabulous.

Thanks everyone! A nice varity of ideas.