Chili Con..coction

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Throw away your jar of “Chili Powder.” Go ahead. I can wait. Done? Good. Because after making my own chili powder, I’ll never, EVER touch that stuff again. You can’t be afraid of the dried chiles section of your grocery store. They look weird, and feel hard, but trust me, it’ll be ok. We’ll go ahead and start with that because, after all, this is a chili recipe, and this homemade powder is quite important.

Ingredients for Chili Powder

• 1 dried chile de Arbol
• 2 dried Ancho chiles
• 2 dried Chipotle chiles

Now, understand that, yes, in the packages there are small chiles, and large ones. This is where that funny little thing called “common sense” comes into play. Choose the most medium, or similar sizes for the Ancho and the Chipotle. I know you don’t lack common sense, but I’ve seen some people wandering around these internets complaining that “There are different sizes, how are we supposed to know?” Sigh. Humanity depresses me sometimes.

ONWARD!

Instructions for Chili Powder

1. Place all chiles on a baking sheet, and pop into the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees.
2. When they’re cool enough for you to handle, cut the chiles open and remove the seeds



3. Roughly chop the chiles, and throw them into either a spice grinder, food processor, or blender, and grind it up!

And there you have it. A beautiful, smoky, spicy, fruity blend of chiles to use in any recipe.

I’ve seen a lot of recipes call for the addition of cocoa powder, or dark chocolate, and beer, but then it hit me: what about killing two birds with one stone and using Chocolate Stout?

All chocolate stout beers are different. The BF and I had a mini taste test with two different brands, and found one to be incredibly sweet, and fruity, while the other one was strong, smoky, and bitter. I went with the latter, because I didn’t want the sweetness to be over-powering. But go ahead and use whatever chocolate stout you prefer. (We chose Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout.)

You all might be wondering why this isn’t be included in the “Meet your Meat” series. Well, this is where this recipe almost hit the fail wall. I used a rump roast in my recipe, and … it’s not the best. It’s still tender, but not very flavorful. So as far as the choice of meat for this recipe, if you choose to use just plain ol’ ground beef, that’s excellent. Chicken breast? Even better. The meat is not the important part here (wow, never thought I’d be saying that.).

Ingredients for chili

• 4 slices of thick cut bacon, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 c chicken stock
• 1, 14oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1, 12oz bottle of chocolate stout
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp homemade chili powder
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 2 1/2 lbs of rump roast cut into 1/2 inch pieces, or meat of your choice
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Using a large dutch oven, or pot, start by rendering the bacon fat.
2. When the bacon is done, salt and pepper your chunks of meat, and add to the pot, browning meat on all sides.
3. Remove bacon, and all the meat from pot (but leave the drippings!) and add your onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Sauté until golden.
4. Add the bottle of beer, and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of your pot with a plastic or wooden spoon. Let beer almost completely reduce, then add stock, tomatoes, cumin, paprika, and chili powder and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Take veggies + broth mixture, and blend it either with an immersion blender, or a regular counter-top blender. Add mixture back to pot, and now, finally, return the meat to the sauce.
6. Simmer on low for 2 1/2 hours, or under meat is done/tender.
7. Add both cans of beans, and simmer for a final 15 minutes.

Rump roast probably wasn’t the best choice for this recipe. But like I said, this recipe was made for the profile of flavors I wanted to feature in a chili recipe, not for the cut of meat. So feel free to make this vegetarian, or chicken, or even a seafood chili.

Aw yeah, that’s good. If you’ve ever taken a look at my “About” section, you’ve noticed that I list beans as one of my most disliked foods. And it’s true, I do not like beans…. usually. I loved them in this. So give beans a chance

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2 Notes

1. Emma says:

   March 14, 2011 at 10:06 am

   Couldn’t agree more about creating your own chilli blend, it’s unbeatable. Am constantly seeking the ‘perfect’ chilli recipe (I tried Heston Blumenthal’s long-winded recipe recently – it’s lousy), and like the idea of the chocolate stout used here, shall give it a try!

   Reply
   • admin says:

     March 14, 2011 at 11:36 am

     I hate when really complicated recipes come out mediocre. I tried to make this recipe as simple but as flavorful as possible. Enjoy!

     Reply