OFF-TOPIC: My best chili recipe !
Greetings All !A bit of an off-topic post today:
My wife and I made my “Award-Winning” chili recipe and brought it to last night’s meeting of the Independence Garden Club. Several people asked me for the recipe, including the club’s newsletter editor. Well, since I had to type it up anyways, I thought I’d send the recipe to some friends and post it on a few message boards. Figured I’d post it here too.
I say it’s “Award-Winning” because I took 2nd place with this recipe in Maywood Baptist Church’s First Annual Chili Cookoff (2005)! Yeah, I know, a church cook-off…. but there were 22 contestants, most of them female. So, I’m proud that a MAN did so well! Plus, I know that two out of the three judges were actually brought in; they are not members of our church… and they both worked full-time in the restaurant industry. So, the church made a very good effort to be impartial with this contest.
(I’m not going to enter this year, though, because I’ve committed to making this for my Neighborhood Association’s February meeting instead.)
Dave’s Texas Chili
5 strips of bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil or bacon grease
2-3 lb. top sirloin, cubed
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 cup of chili powder
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon mexican oregano *
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups beef broth
1 cup dry red wine
1 16 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz. can black beans **
1 8 oz. package mushrooms, broken-up
3 bell peppers, any color, diced
1 jalapeno chili, stemmed and minced (optional)
Fry up the bacon until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towel to drain.
Put some of the left-over bacon grease (or use olive oil) into a heavy pot.
Heat over medium heat. Add meat and brown the meat, stirring, until no longer pink. Add onion, garlic, chili powder, and liquid smoke. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions are wilted and start to color, about 4-5 minutes. Add mexican oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook for another minute.
At this point, you may continue to use the large pot to cook your chili…or you may transfer it to a crock-pot for longer, slower cooking.
Add beef broth, red wine, and crushed tomatoes.
If using a pot on the stove, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partially-covered, stirring occasionally, until meat is very tender… about 2-3 hours.
If using a slow-cooker, cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.
While that’s cooking, let’s go back to your bacon, which is probably cooled by now. Break up the bacon into tiny pieces and bits.
After the multi-hour cooking time is up, stir in bacon, beans, mushrooms, bell peppers, and jalapeno (optional). Cook another 10 minutes. (If dinner time is a ways off, you can let it go longer. We’re still simmering our chili, so you can leave it in there for a couple of hours if you have to. But if you let it go longer than that, you’re risking cooking your ingredients into mush.)
If the chili looks a little “watery”, you may thicken it at this point by doing the following: Put a couple teaspoons of flour (or “masa” or “masa harina”) into a cup. Add hot water to almost fill the cup. Stir well to dissolve the solids completely. Pour into your chili. Stir and let cook another 15 minutes. Check to see if it’s still not as thick as you would like. If not, repeat this procedure.
Salt some more / spice to taste before serving.
Makes about 3 quarts (12 cups).
* Secret ingredient that gives the chili a distinct aroma and taste! You can find spice at Price Chopper. Most other stores won’t have it.
** In an attempt to boost the protien content / make this chili a bit low-carb, I always substitute black soy beans, which you will find in Hy-Vee’s organic section.
Thanks!
-= Dave =-