Who doesn't love a good pot of Chili? Especially, in the dead of winter. Is there anything better to warm you up? I don't think so. With winter storms hitting us from all directions and the weekend only a few short hours away I thought I would share with you the recipe for The Best Chili Ever.
What makes this Chili Recipe so special? Well, besides a couple of surprise ingredients, it really comes down to the timing of when the ingredients are added and the spices and quantities of spices used. To be fair, this isn't your run-of-the-mill Chili. This has a lot more flavour, which comes in part from the cinnamon and cumin in the recipe. So, this will likely be different than most Chili you are used to. But I think that is what makes it so good. It isn't at all like every other Chili.
Jump to Recipe
Getting Started - Mise en place
The first step is to get all the ingredients together. In cooking, we call this Mise en Place. For me, this included measuring out all of my spices ahead of time. That way I wasn't fumbling around later trying to find all my spices in the disaster that is my spice cupboard.
The spices I used are:
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Browing the Beef
The next step is to start cooking the beef. I heated up a large pot. In this case, it was an enamelled cast iron Dutch oven. You can use whatever type of pot you want. I added about 1 tablespoon of canola oil. You can use olive oil, grape seed oil, or just about any other type of oil for this. I added the beef (about 2 lbs) to the hot pot and oil and cooked it until it was fully browned. This took about 8-10 minutes.
Onions, garlic, and celery, oh my!
While the beef was browning, I diced one onion, minced 3 garlic cloves, diced the bottom half of a bunch of green onions and diced 1 celery stalk and 1 jalapeno. I added the onions and the garlic to the pot, and I cooked them for about 5 minutes. Then I added in the green onion bottoms, and the celery and cooked for about 4 minutes. Finally, I added in the jalapeno and cooked for another 4 minutes before moving on to my next batch of ingredients.
Spices
With all the onions and celery and everything starting to soften, it was time to add in the spices. As I said earlier, I had the spices all measured out, so I poured them all in in one shot. I cooked the spices, stirring, for about 2 minutes.
Tomato Purée
Next came the tomato purée. If you don't have tomato purée or can't find it, crushed tomatoes will do. The jar I used was 660ml (or 24 fl oz). I poured the contents of the bottle into my pot, then rinsed the bottle out with about a ½ cup of water and poured that in too. Waste not want not, right?
Beans
In some parts of the world, Chili doesn't have beans in it. I do not live in one of those parts of the world. I don't think I have ever had Chili without beans in it. And so if you think it is crazy that I am adding kidney beans into my Chili, understand that I think it's crazy that you don't.
I drained and rinsed a 540ml (19 fl oz) can of red kidney beans, then added them to my pot. At this point, I stirred everything together and brought it up to a boil. Then, I put the lid on the pot, reduced the heat to low and left it to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through so the Chili didn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
Peppers
While the Chili was simmering away I got my final few ingredients ready to go. First up, I took the seeds out and diced 1 red bell pepper, and 1 green bell pepper. Then, I brewed a ¼ cup of very strong coffee and grabbed 2 oz of semi-sweet bakers chocolate out of my baking cupboard.
You may be wondering why I haven't added the bell peppers into the Chili yet. Well, if the peppers get cooked too long they will turn bitter and throw off the flavour of the Chili. As you will see I add them in at the last 20 minutes of cooking. This is enough time to cook the peppers through, but not enough time to make them bitter.
You may also be wondering what the coffee and chocolate are for. They are not a snack for while I'm waiting. They are both going into the Chili. The coffee and chocolate add a lot of depth to the flavour of the Chili. I know it may seem odd, but when you try it, you will be blown away.
Finishing the Best Ever Chili
After the initial 30 minute simmer of the Chili, I gave it a stir and a taste and added a bit more salt. Then, I added in the peppers, coffee, and chocolate, stirred it all together, put the lid back on the pot and simmered it for another 20 minutes. After that, I tasted it and added a bit more seasoning as was needed. Then, I put the lid back on the pot and let the Chili sit off the heat for another 20 minutes.
Corn pancake.
While the Chili was resting I made some kind of sweet corn pancake to go along with it. Essentially, I wanted cornbread but didn't have all the ingredients so I made this instead. I have used this brand for a long time to make tacos, but this was the first time I used this mixture. It as really good and I would recommend it with the Chili 100%.
Conclusion
Like I said in the intro, in my opinion, this is the Best Chili Ever. It is spicy but not too spicy. It's earthy but doesn't taste like dirt. It has loads of flavour, as well as a few surprise ingredients that you can keep as our little secret. The next time you get a craving for Chili, give this recipe a shot. I promise that you will be happy you did.
You may have noticed that this chili hasn't been cooked for hours and hours and hours as some people believe it is necessary. The truth is that cooking Chili for that long is actually destroying the flavour of it, rather than improving it. Think about it this way; when we taste something, let's say a carrot. We aren't actually tasting the "carrot". We are tasting a mixture of flavour compounds that make up the taste of a carrot. These flavour compounds are what give everything flavour. The flavour compounds are largely made up of essential oils which when heated quickly start to lose their potency. The longer you cook these compounds the less flavour they are going to have. Because the flavours aren't as potent when they are cooked for long periods of time, they don't stand out. What you are left with is a bland pot of Chili that only has one muddled flavour. This is opposed to a pot of Chili with a combination of well-balanced, vibrant flavours.
I know that what I just said is going to piss some people off. They will say they've been cooking Chili their whole lives for hours and hours and it's the best and whatever else. To those people, I have one question. Have you tried not cooking the shit out of your Chili? Maybe, just maybe, you'll like it better. I'm willing to bet you will.
As always, thank you for reading. And please remember to like and share the post. Have a great weekend everyone!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Medium Ground Beef
- 1 lg Onion, diced
- 3-4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 Jalapeno, diced
- 1 stalk Celery, diced
- 1 bunch Green Onions, cut in half, the bottoms diced and the tops saved for garnish
- 660 ml Jar of tomato purée Jar rinsed out with ½ cup water
- 1 can Red Kidney Beans 540ml (19 oz)
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon Dried Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 2 teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Chilli Flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- ¼ cup Strong Coffee
- 2 oz Bitter Sweet Bakers Chocolate 2 oz = 2 squares
- 1 tablespoon Canola Oil
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add the oil along with the ground beef and cook until browned.
- Add in the onion, garlic, celery, and jalapeno and cook for 7-8 minutes.
- Add in the spices and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Next, add in the tomato purée. Then, rinse the bottle or jar with ½ cup of water and add that into the pot as well.
- Drain and rinse the kidney beans and add those to the pot as well.
- Bring the pot to a boil, turn the heat down to low, scrape the bottom of the pot, put a lid on it and let it sit for 30 minutes untouched.
- While the pot is simmering, seed and dice the peppers.
- After 30 minutes of simmer remove the lid from the pot and give it a quick taste. Adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Add in the bell peppers, coffee, and chocolate. Put the lid back on the pot and simmer for another 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid from the pot, taste the chilli, adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed then serve garnished the green onion tops.
Leave a Reply