Serious Eats: jpetersen's Profile

Adam, my wife's chili is a varient of a recipe by a Ray Calhoun from a book we have called 'Southwest Tastes'. Here's his recipe directly off the web:
Grand prize chili
Categories: Meat
Yield: 6 Servings
¼ cup Vegetable oil
3 pounds Coarsely ground beef
1 Onion; peeled & chopped
1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
4 Cloves garlic; finely chopped
6 tablespoon Chili powder
1 teaspoon Dried oregano
1 tablespoon Cumin
8 ounce Tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Water or more as needed
1 Habenero pepper or as many as you wish to add
In a covered saucepan or dutchoven, heat the oil over med-high heat and cook the beef until it is evenly browned and no pink shows. Add the onion and the garlic and saute until onion is translucent,about 5 minutes. Add the paprika, chili powder, cumin and oregeno and stir for 3 minutes to cook the spices. Add the tomato sauce, salt and water and stir to combine. Add the Habenero if you want HOT chili(or you could just add a little cayenne powder). Bring to a boil and simmer, covered over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally and adding more water as needed, up to 1 cup depending on the rate of simmer. Serve over pinto beans with cheese and onion to garnish.

My wife makes a few changes. First, she sweats the onions and garlic, as though you were starting out a pasta sauce. Then, she adds the spices (adding 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon) which are cooked until they're aromatic. (She's not that careful about measuring the spices, and will sometimes use more chili powder than the recipe.) THEN, she adds the meat, cooks it until it's no longer pink, then adds the water or beef stock (for more flavor), 1 16oz. can tomatos crushed by hand instead of ready-made tomato sauce, more salt than Calhoun calls for (taste it), and 2 or more diced but not seeded jalapeno chiles (not habaneros). Finally, as I said above, I skip the beans, but if you did do beans, you'd do pintos and only add the finished chili over the cooked pintos (no beans in the chili itself). She plates it with shredded jack or queso blanco, scallion, and sour cream. It's a beautiful thing, and the day it's made, it's not a stretch to put three bowls down - EASY!

Sandro at 1:36PM on 01/20/07

From Talk

What's the secret in your chili recipe?

Chocolate, chiles, beer, masa...we're approaching mole, here, sisters and brothers.

Chili is Tex-Mex, not Mexican, I hear tell here in South Texas. Chili is probably the gift of the San Antonio Chili Queens, who sold their hearty and filling "stew", in front of the Alamo. It probably contained whatever meat was available, and lots of onions and a variety of chiles, salt and pepper. Beans were probably available on the side, but not cooked with the meat. And there are some that think the dish originated on the trail, "invented" by Mexican cowboy cooks to feed hungry cattle drovers. But the point was to feed cheaply a lot of hungry guys who lived in the cultural stew that was South Texas in the last half of the 19th century.

dksbook at 12:15PM on 01/20/07

From Talk

What's the secret in your chili recipe?

Ground chuck, penzeys chipolte and ancho ground chili powders, fresh chopped chilis, a beer (one of any kind) celery young parts (small and chopped very fine and one bay leaf.
If I do not have chili powders I take dried guajillo, ancho peppers pour hot water over them and when they are enlivened I give them a few pulses in the food processor and make a mole.

JerzeeTomato at 2:25AM on 01/20/07

From Talk