Over the years, I’ve found myself at a couple of chili cook-offs, and some wonderfully inventive takes on the Tex-Mex stew.
Now, there are as many different concepts of “chili” as there are cooks — probably more. The only consistent characteristic is the presence of chiles: hotter or milder, powder or chopped, smoked or dried or fresh. Doesn’t really matter.
The protein? Despite what Texans say, I think beans are OK. In fact, venison can be good, too, instead of beef, and I’ve had a number of good chicken chilis.
So the pork and pineapple chili was unusual, but compelling. The Korean-style chili the Veterans of Foreign Wars cooked up a few years ago using gochujang to honor Korean War veterans was inventive and hot, even as it was sweet.
But the “Italian” chili that didn’t have any of the traditional spices, instead was flavored with oregano and basil? It tasted more like my spaghetti sauce with cannellini beans than anything I’d find in the American Southwest.
I’ve had a number, promoted by their creators chanting “Not too much spice. Not too much spice,” lacked any spice at all. The dishes were little more than ground beef, tomatoes and bell pepper and if they had been served over macaroni would be a dish my mother called “American chop suey.”
I think where people trip up is in confusing “spicy” with “heat.” Heat in a chili comes from the capsaicin in the peppers. More capsaicin, more heat. Too much and your mouth is on fire. Spicy, however, comes from everything else: cumin and coriander, cilantro and oregano, cocoa and garlic. Consider supplementing your chiles (or chili powder) with smoked paprika.
My favorite go-to chili uses cocoa powder, a regionally appropriate ingredient dating back to the Aztecs, cubed beef instead of ground beef (I like to chew my chili) and lots and lots of spice: cumin and coriander, mostly. I mix up the chiles, depending on what’s on hand. I like chipotles, or smoked jalapeno, when I have some. I’ve grown an African fatalii pepper before — they’re about as hot as a habanero — so that’s often tossed into the pot.
My son, however, doesn’t like the heat, so I recently prepared a low-heat chili that was a riff on my go-to recipe but without the hotter peppers. He said he’d eat it again, although I had to add copious amounts of hot sauce (I make my own.) to my bowl.
The trick is to consider chili as what it was meant to be: a low-cost meal of whatever ingredients you have around, prepared with love. And if you truly love them, spice it up a bit.
CHILI
2 pounds chuck or round steak, cut into half-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
5 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
3 Tbs. chili powder
1 Tbs. smoked paprika
1 Tbs. oregano or cilantro
1 Tbs. cumin seed
1 Tbs. coriander seed
1 Tbs. Dutch process cocoa
1 chipotle pepper, broken up
1/2 to 1 tsp. hot pepper (or to taste)
12 ounces beer
2 quarts stewed tomatoes
Salt to taste
Rehydrate the beans in 6 cups of water, either by soaking overnight or simmering with a pinch of baking soda until tender, but not mushy.
Add a touch of vegetable oil to a 6-quart pot or Dutch oven and brown the beef and garlic.
Add the chili powder and other spices, stirring until they absorb the pan’s juices. Then add the beer and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.
Add the beans and continue to simmer for five to 10 minutes, until the beans are heated through.
Serve with cornbread or biscuits.
LOW-HEAT CHILI
2 pounds chuck or round steak, cut into half-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
5 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
3 Tbs. chili powder
1 Tbs. oregano or cilantro
1 Tbs. cumin seed
1 Tbs. coriander seed
1 Tbs. cocoa powder
12 ounces beer
2 quarts stewed tomatoes
A splash of lime juice
Salt to taste
Rehydrate the beans in 6 cups of water, either by soaking overnight or simmering with a pinch of baking soda until tender, but not mushy.
Add a touch of vegetable oil to a 6-quart pot or Dutch oven and brown the beef and garlic.
Add the chili powder and other spices, stirring until they absorb the pan’s juices. Then add the beer and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.
Add the beans and lime juice and continue to simmer for five to 10 minutes, until the beans are heated through.
Serve with cornbread or biscuits.
Play with it: Are you kidding? This dish is all about play. Double the beans and skip the meat for vegetarian. Use different types of beans. Make your own chili powder by mixing a variety of dried chiles — ancho, chipotle, guajillo. Add more or less of any other spice. Maybe add some onions.
