OT - Chili Recipe Help | The Boneyard

OT - Chili Recipe Help

jleves

Awesomeness
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
4,253
Reaction Score
15,065
Someone posted a rather intense chili recipe that involved very fatty meat and tons of different chili peppers and a couple days to make. I've searched but can't find it. Can you post or link to that again. Thinking I want to try it for my annual xmas eve gathering.

Thanks
 

August_West

Universal remote, put it down on docking station.
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Messages
51,036
Reaction Score
87,318
Someone posted a rather intense chili recipe that involved very fatty meat and tons of different chili peppers and a couple days to make. I've searched but can't find it. Can you post or link to that again. Thinking I want to try it for my annual xmas eve gathering.

Thanks
http://richz.com/


  • 10 to 15 pounds of chuck...unless you can find a cheaper, fattier cut of beef somewhere, in which case, use that.
  • 4 cloves elephant garlic
  • 1 pint water
  • ¼ cup dark, extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 dozen fresh cubanelle peppers (more, if you like your chili temperate or sweet)
  • ½ dozen fresh jalapeno peppers (more if you like your chili hot)
  • 3 dried cayenne peppers
  • 1 large fresh habanero pepper (green if you're looking for serious throat-scorchingly hot chili, othewise, fully ripe golden-orange)
  • 1 Hungarian Wax Pepper
  • 2 or 3 Portuguese hot peppers, roasted till black and nearly crispy
  • 3 small, dried hot Thai red peppers
  • 5 large white onions
  • 4 or 5 plum tomatoes (feel free to leave these out – they are mostly for color)
  • 6+ tablespoons Tones dark chili powder §
  • 3+ tablespoons cumin §
  • 1 tablespoon coarsely-ground black pepper
  • 1½ cup yellow cornmeal
  • 1 pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into 1" squares
  • Optionally, a few of any other kinds of chili peppers you might find in the garden , the produce store or wherever you aquire your goodies. When it comes to adding variety and character to your chili, anything from the capsicum family is OK! But no beans, dammit!
§ It should be noted that the "+" following the amounts of chili powder and cumin is quite variable, according to taste. I usually end up with upwards of 10 tablespoons of chili powder and at least 4 or 5 of cumin.
Cooking Instructions
  1. Trim any fat thicker than ¼" or so from the beef, then cube the beef (½" to 1")
  2. Press the garlic and sauté it with a few pieces of the fat cut from the beef. If you don't have any fat trimmed from the beef, you bought too expensive a cut of meat. Go to jail...go directly to jail...do not pass go, and do not collect $200. Add another half-pound of bacon to the recipe to make up for the dryness. Toss a couple strips into the pan now to get things rolling, then add a strip or two every half hour or so as the pot stews. Don't let it happen again next time. When the garlic has browned nicely, leave it and the drippings in the pan and discard any remaining solid fat.
  3. Crank the heat up a bit and brown the beef cubes in the frying pan with the sautéed garlic. Don't worry about the garlic burning–it's supposed to.
  4. Put the water, the olive oil, the browned beef cubes, the burnt garlic and the drippings from frying into a large, covered pot, set on low heat. A crock pot's OK, but I prefer a big old enameled pot set on a heat dispersing grate over the lowest setting I can get the burner to on the gas range. Scrape every last bit of burnt stuff out of the pan and get it into the chili pot. It adds character to the chili.
  5. Peel and dice 3 onions. Add to pot.
  6. Finely chop all peppers (food processor is fine) except a few cubanelle and the blackened Portuguese. Add to pot.
  7. Puree or mash tomatoes. Add to pot.
  8. Mix cumin, black pepper and 4 tablespoons of the chili powder into the pot.
  9. Simmer (loosely covered) for 2 hours (stirring occasionally), then mix in cornmeal and 2 more tablespoons of chili powder.
  10. While chili pot simmers, fry the bacon. Half of it should be burnt to a pleasing, black crisp, the remainder should be barely browned.
  11. Allow to simmer (still covered) at least 4 to 5 more hours. Taste occasionally, adding additional chili powder and cumin to taste. It’s chili when it’s impossible to pick a piece of meat out of the pot without it falling into shreds, but the longer you can stand to cook it instead of eating it, the better it will be.
  12. Approximately ½ hour before serving, dice the remaining onion and chilies and add them, along with the bacon, to the pot. Stir in thoroughly with a large fork, shredding any remaining chunks of beef as you stir.
  13. If the chili seems too liquid, leave the cover off and raise temperature slightly for a half-hour or so. If too thick, you didn’t use enough peppers and onions … add some now and increase the simmering time. You can adjust viscosity with cornmeal or water if pressed for time, but simmering adjustments are better.
 

jleves

Awesomeness
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
4,253
Reaction Score
15,065
http://richz.com/


  • 10 to 15 pounds of chuck...unless you can find a cheaper, fattier cut of beef somewhere, in which case, use that.
  • 4 cloves elephant garlic
  • 1 pint water
  • ¼ cup dark, extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 dozen fresh cubanelle peppers (more, if you like your chili temperate or sweet)
  • ½ dozen fresh jalapeno peppers (more if you like your chili hot)
  • 3 dried cayenne peppers
  • 1 large fresh habanero pepper (green if you're looking for serious throat-scorchingly hot chili, othewise, fully ripe golden-orange)
  • 1 Hungarian Wax Pepper
  • 2 or 3 Portuguese hot peppers, roasted till black and nearly crispy
  • 3 small, dried hot Thai red peppers
  • 5 large white onions
  • 4 or 5 plum tomatoes (feel free to leave these out – they are mostly for color)
  • 6+ tablespoons Tones dark chili powder §
  • 3+ tablespoons cumin §
  • 1 tablespoon coarsely-ground black pepper
  • 1½ cup yellow cornmeal
  • 1 pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into 1" squares
  • Optionally, a few of any other kinds of chili peppers you might find in the garden , the produce store or wherever you aquire your goodies. When it comes to adding variety and character to your chili, anything from the capsicum family is OK! But no beans, dammit!
§ It should be noted that the "+" following the amounts of chili powder and cumin is quite variable, according to taste. I usually end up with upwards of 10 tablespoons of chili powder and at least 4 or 5 of cumin.
Cooking Instructions

  1. Trim any fat thicker than ¼" or so from the beef, then cube the beef (½" to 1")
  2. Press the garlic and sauté it with a few pieces of the fat cut from the beef. If you don't have any fat trimmed from the beef, you bought too expensive a cut of meat. Go to jail...go directly to jail...do not pass go, and do not collect $200. Add another half-pound of bacon to the recipe to make up for the dryness. Toss a couple strips into the pan now to get things rolling, then add a strip or two every half hour or so as the pot stews. Don't let it happen again next time. When the garlic has browned nicely, leave it and the drippings in the pan and discard any remaining solid fat.
  3. Crank the heat up a bit and brown the beef cubes in the frying pan with the sautéed garlic. Don't worry about the garlic burning–it's supposed to.
  4. Put the water, the olive oil, the browned beef cubes, the burnt garlic and the drippings from frying into a large, covered pot, set on low heat. A crock pot's OK, but I prefer a big old enameled pot set on a heat dispersing grate over the lowest setting I can get the burner to on the gas range. Scrape every last bit of burnt stuff out of the pan and get it into the chili pot. It adds character to the chili.
  5. Peel and dice 3 onions. Add to pot.
  6. Finely chop all peppers (food processor is fine) except a few cubanelle and the blackened Portuguese. Add to pot.
  7. Puree or mash tomatoes. Add to pot.
  8. Mix cumin, black pepper and 4 tablespoons of the chili powder into the pot.
  9. Simmer (loosely covered) for 2 hours (stirring occasionally), then mix in cornmeal and 2 more tablespoons of chili powder.
  10. While chili pot simmers, fry the bacon. Half of it should be burnt to a pleasing, black crisp, the remainder should be barely browned.
  11. Allow to simmer (still covered) at least 4 to 5 more hours. Taste occasionally, adding additional chili powder and cumin to taste. It’s chili when it’s impossible to pick a piece of meat out of the pot without it falling into shreds, but the longer you can stand to cook it instead of eating it, the better it will be.
  12. Approximately ½ hour before serving, dice the remaining onion and chilies and add them, along with the bacon, to the pot. Stir in thoroughly with a large fork, shredding any remaining chunks of beef as you stir.
  13. If the chili seems too liquid, leave the cover off and raise temperature slightly for a half-hour or so. If too thick, you didn’t use enough peppers and onions … add some now and increase the simmering time. You can adjust viscosity with cornmeal or water if pressed for time, but simmering adjustments are better.
That's the one - Thanks!
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
12,082
Reaction Score
63,166
Jesus. I envy the person with a palate that thinks this recipe could use a tad more oregano.

Make sure to read the accompanying explanation post. Epic.
How to Make the Best Chili Ever | The Food Lab

But oh man. This post just inspired me about what I can make for my family holiday gathering to accommodate my vegan sister. I'll sous vide the short ribs for 36 hours, then brown something else (mushrooms and onions maybe possibly using the burned garlic approach from above) to build the fond, finish the chili base making sure it's ultra thick, then separate into two and add the beef plus bag juices to one and something else to the other (maybe thicker mushrooms).
 
Last edited:

storrsroars

Exiled in Pittsburgh
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
19,707
Reaction Score
38,401
Jesus. I envy the person with a palate that thinks this recipe could use a tad more oregano.

That's a strange recipe. Not because of adding Marmite, Frank's hot sauce, soy sauce, anchovy, coffee and vodka, but because if you're going to take the time to cook whole chiles instead of using preground, why on earth would you deseed the things?
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
12,082
Reaction Score
63,166
That's a strange recipe. Not because of adding Marmite, Frank's hot sauce, soy sauce, anchovy, coffee and vodka, but because if you're going to take the time to cook whole chiles instead of using preground, why on earth would you deseed the things?

I don't know for sure, but perhaps to control the heat level. Every pepper has different capsaicin heat levels and it's not possible to know how hot a given pepper will be just by weight. Removing stems and seeds gets you a closer baseline that you can adjust later (with the hot sauce). Also perhaps smoother texture (seeds might not puree even in a food processor).
 

storrsroars

Exiled in Pittsburgh
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
19,707
Reaction Score
38,401
I don't know for sure, but perhaps to control the heat level. Every pepper has different capsaicin heat levels and it's not possible to know how hot a given pepper will be just by weight. Removing stems and seeds gets you a closer baseline that you can adjust later (with the hot sauce). Also perhaps smoother texture (seeds might not puree even in a food processor).

If you don't want heat, use mild chiles, e.g. there's no point in adding habanero if you're taking the seeds/spines out.
 

Dream Jobbed 2.0

“Most definitely”
Joined
May 3, 2016
Messages
14,827
Reaction Score
55,739
1545237287963.png
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
12,082
Reaction Score
63,166
If you don't want heat, use mild chiles, e.g. there's no point in adding habanero if you're taking the seeds/spines out.

Because the flesh still has flavor (and relative amounts of heat) and each varietal has different flavors and it's about layering those flavors. From the accompanying post on the hot chilis section the subcategory of hot peppers: "Hot: An overwhelming heat. The best, like cascabels, also have some complexity." Which is probably why the recipe includes cascabels and not habaneros.
 

RichZ

Fort the ead!
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
5,204
Reaction Score
22,153
Someone posted a rather intense chili recipe that involved very fatty meat and tons of different chili peppers and a couple days to make. I've searched but can't find it. Can you post or link to that again. Thinking I want to try it for my annual xmas eve gathering.

Thanks
4.jpg
 
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
16,029
Reaction Score
23,090
Some good chefs on this board, my mouth is watering.
 

storrsroars

Exiled in Pittsburgh
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
19,707
Reaction Score
38,401
Because the flesh still has flavor (and relative amounts of heat) and each varietal has different flavors and it's about layering those flavors. From the accompanying post on the hot chilis section the subcategory of hot peppers: "Hot: An overwhelming heat. The best, like cascabels, also have some complexity." Which is probably why the recipe includes cascabels and not habaneros.

Cascabels are milder than the average jalapeno. And w/o seeds have very little heat at all. When you take that into consideration with all the other oddities that author has thrown into his pot, I'm not feeling "chili", I'm feeling some kind of fusion stew concocted in an apartment in Williamsburg.

FTR, I've got 10 varieties of dried chiles in my cupboard at the moment. I know what each of them contribute to the pot. I'll supplement with fresh when I make a batch. I'll stick with my assertion that deseeding chiles is mostly an unnecessary step, whether cooking Latin American or Asian.
 

August_West

Universal remote, put it down on docking station.
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Messages
51,036
Reaction Score
87,318
Cascabels are milder than the average jalapeno. And w/o seeds have very little heat at all. When you take that into consideration with all the other oddities that author has thrown into his pot, I'm not feeling "chili", I'm feeling some kind of fusion stew concocted in an apartment in Williamsburg.

FTR, I've got 10 varieties of dried chiles in my cupboard at the moment. I know what each of them contribute to the pot. I'll supplement with fresh when I make a batch. I'll stick with my assertion that deseeding chiles is mostly an unnecessary step, whether cooking Latin American or Asian.


Plus it has LOL Beans in it.
 

storrsroars

Exiled in Pittsburgh
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
19,707
Reaction Score
38,401
Plus it has LOL Beans in it.

I'll throw beans in depending on my mood. I'm old and need fiber.

But not Marmite and soy. Sounds like the author is a lapsed vegetarian. If you're going in that direction, throw in some Bovril and beer instead.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
12,082
Reaction Score
63,166
When you take that into consideration with all the other oddities that author has thrown into his pot, I'm not feeling "chili", I'm feeling some kind of fusion stew concocted in an apartment in Williamsburg.
I'll throw beans in depending on my mood. I'm old and need fiber.

But not Marmite and soy. Sounds like the author is a lapsed vegetarian. If you're going in that direction, throw in some Bovril and beer instead.

Embrace the umami, dude. Get that Bovril in there.
 

Online statistics

Members online
562
Guests online
3,583
Total visitors
4,145

Forum statistics

Threads
155,769
Messages
4,031,001
Members
9,863
Latest member
leepaul


Top Bottom