HOW TO: make a thick, no-bean chili

Growing up, chili was a Christmas Eve dinner tradition. My mom made her recipe--a thin version made with ground beef, beans and tomato juice as the primary liquid. And I grew up thinking I didn't like chili.

And then somewhere between college and now, I realized that I what I didn't really like was the beans and the thinness of it. I tried a can of no-bean chili, and it was just okay. But I knew that it would taste a lot better if I made it fresh, with what I wanted.

But up until last week, I had never done so. I realized that I had talked all this game about how "I love thick chili with no beans" but had never put it to the test. Saturday I made my first pot of chili.

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Also, this was the first culinary adventure where I wasn't using a recipe. I did some research, but nothing had everything I wanted. So I picked up some tips, and some techniques, and decided to invent my own recipe. Here we go.

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Dave's Chili Recipe

Meats
1.5 pounds of lean beef stew meat

Chiles
1 poblano
2 jalapenos

Veggies
1 onion
1 red pepper
5 cloves garlic

Liquids & Spices
3/4 cup Pace Picante sauce
2 tbsp Gates bbq sauce
3 cups chicken broth
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
sprinkle oregano
sprinkle cinnamon
sprinkle chipotle hot sauce



I gathered everything I thought I might need. But the focus is on the meat. I thought about doing a two-meat or even a three-meat chili, but wanted to get the basic recipe down first, before I went crazy. Chorizo or italian sausage would have to wait. Plus, the smallest stew meat container I could get was 1.5 pounds, and that seemed like plenty of meat.


So the first step is to get your pot on a medium-heat burner and cut up your stew meat into half-inch chunks. Brown your meat with olive oil. I should have done in it multiple batches to get a better browning action. I had no idea there would be so much grease coming out. So drain your meat, then season with salt & pepper (I like using Lawry's Seasoned Salt if you have it).

Then I added 1.5 cups of chicken broth, and turned the heat down to low. I probably would have preferred beef broth, but I already had the chicken broth on hand, so that's what I used. Right away I cut up my poblano and two jalapenos. I had more jalapenos but figured I could always add them later and I had no idea how hot this was going to be. And I wasn't going for the spiciest chili. I wanted to get good depth of flavor. So I added the diced peppers to the broth and beef, infusing the flavor in the liquid from the beginning.

Also I figured, what's the point of making chili if you're not going to use fresh chiles?

(total time elapsed: 30 minutes)

Then I diced my onion and red pepper. For the garlic cloves, I left them in big pieces--4 per clove. I poured in some medium Pace Picante. I added a little Gates sauce and the rest of the spices. Here's what it looked like once I added everything.

(total time elapsed: 1 hour)

Then comes the easy part: just let it simmer on low. I only stirred it maybe once every 20-30 minutes. When I came back 1.5 hours later, a lot of the liquid had cooked off. You can see the residue on the side of the pot how much the chili had condensed. So I added another 1/2 cup of broth, took this next picture, and had a cup to sample.

(total time elapsed: 2 hours, 30 minutes)

At 2.5 hours, the flavor was perfect. Consistency was the way I wanted, nice and thick. The veggies were definitely cooked through. The only thing that needed work was the meat. It was just a bit chewy, and I knew it needed a little more time.

So I added another cup of broth and teaspoon of chili powder and let it simmer some more.

(total time elapsed: 3 hours, 15 minutes)

Here it is at the end of the cooking time. The meat was fairly tender. I could have keep the meat going, but I didn't want to leave the veggies going any longer and have them turn to mush. Going into this, I was prepared to let it cook 6 hours, but hadn't thought about how my ingredients would hold up.

Here's how I served it:


So how did it taste? Delicious. Exactly what I was going for, a nice depth of rich flavor. Spicy, but not overwhelming. A complex heat. Honestly it turned out better than I expected. And I liked having the Trader Joe's frito-style chips there for a crunch.

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Thoughts For Next Time

So this kind of stew meat needs 3-5 hours to simmer. If I added some kind of sausage, it wouldn't need that much time. The chiles/veggies only needed about 2 hours, so don't be in a rush to add them right away. As for my ingredient choices, I don't really need to change a thing. I might try beef broth, and I could experiment with my chiles. And you could use whatever veggies and spices you want, though I think the onion, chili powder and cayenne powder are non-negotiable.

It's conventional wisdom that chili is better the next day, after the flavors have had time to blend in the fridge overnight. On Sunday, I had another bowl. It tasted just as good, but not better to my palate. As far as I'm concerned, "making it a day ahead" is an old wive's tale.

The only downside to making a thick chili like this, is that it doesn't go as far as you'd think. I had a pound and a half of meat and 3 cups of broth and it basically made three big bowls. It's not the live on this for a week portion that it might suggest.

So that's my chili. No beans. No water. And hardly any tomatoes (just the bit of picante). Mostly Texas style. Just how I wanted it.