Chili - Basic Texas Red

A good dish for a cold winter Eagles-game-day Sunday is a nice bowl of chili - a basic Texas Red, with just beef (and no beans).

I was looking back through my postings here, and I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet... This is our version of a basic easy chili, adapted from several different recipes. So here's how an east coast Yankee makes a bowl of Texas Red.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds of cubed "stew" beef (chuck is good)
• 1 large onion, chopped into small pieces
• 1-2 cups of green and red chilis (today I used three Anaheim mild green chilis, 1 red bell pepper and 1 jalapeno), chopped into small pieces
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or 1 tablespoon minced jar garlic)
• 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ancho chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon generic "chili powder"
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• A 28 oz can of diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 square semi-sweet baker's chocolate
• 2-3 cups beef stock
• 1 bottle of beer

Steps:

1) Cut the beef into small (1/2 - 3/4 inch cubes or small pieces). In a large dutch oven, brown the beef pieces in a little bit of oil, in batches.

2)  Put all the beef back into the pot, add the onions and garlic, and stir for a few minutes.

Beef and onions and garlic

3) Add the dried spices, fresh chilis and diced tomatoes with their juices. Stir for a few minutes to get the spices mixed in.

Add the spices, fresh chilis and diced tomatoes

Add 2-3 cups of beef stock and one bottle of a good beer (I used a bottle of Sam Adams this time). Also add the one square of baker's chocolate. Mix well. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer, and cook for an hour.

Add beef stock and a beer

At the end of an hour, remove the cover, and simmer it for another 1-1.5 hours, adjusting the temperature as needed to make sure you maintain a low simmer.

Two to two and a half hours later - Chili

Serve with jalapeno corn bread and a salad. We garnish with sour cream, green onions, shredded cheddar (and more sliced fresh jalapeno for me).

Turkey Chili

Turkey Chili

I'll start out by saying that a turkey chili recipe is not something that I would have chosen to make on my own. However, a request came home from Grace's school for people to sign up for various food items to bring to school for a teacher appreciation week lunch. One of the main course items on the list was turkey chili. We'd never made one before, but had time on Sunday to do this, so that's what we did.

We routinely make a Texas Red chili (no beans of course) and a White Chicken Chili, but didn't have a handy recipe for a turkey chili. A little quick Googling allowed us to synthesize the following recipe by blending a few different simple recipes together. We made it, tasted it (it was really good!) and sent it off to school. No leftovers came home, but the kids, having tasted it while I was making it, asked that we make it again for ourselves at home. So we did, and had it for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

• A few glugs of olive oil
• 2 pounds of ground turkey (I used 1 lb each of ground breast and ground thigh for a mix of light and dark meat)
• 2 medium onions, medium dice
• 2.5-3 cups chicken broth (or a 32 oz package if you've gone heavy-handed on the other ingredients)
• 1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 regular (14 oz) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed (white beans or kidneys would be fine)
• 1-2 Anaheim or other mild/medium heat green chili pepper, fine dice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

Spice Mix:

• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1-2 TB chili powder (I used half chipotle and half store bought generic "chili powder"...in deference to the kids we do this on the lighter end and season again for ourselves at the end)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (the chipotle and the smoked paprika combine to give a very nice smoky flavor)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin, plus a little more
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a dash of dried mustard
• a dash of ground coriander

Steps:

1. Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy large pot over high heat. When shimmering, add the turkey, breaking it up, stirring and cooking it until it is mostly cooked (5 or 6 minutes).
2. Add the onion, minced garlic and green chili pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the spice mix and stir to distribute. Cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the remaining ingredients (broth, tomatoes and beans). Bring to a boil. Partly cover, reduce to a low simmer and cook for an hour.
5. Check periodically while the dish simmers and add a little more chicken broth if needed (I didn't). You want a good chili consistency, not too thick and not too soupy.

...and a beverage

Some recipes of this type call for the beans to be mashed before adding them, which will serve to thicken the sauce, but I have found that a longer cooking time combined with a routine stirring will cause the beans to begin to break down, giving much the same effect with a slight bit less trouble.

This ended up being a surprisingly good recipe. I would make it (significantly) hotter if it was just for me, but in deference to the kids the above is a manageable amount of heat. This could also prove to be a versatile recipe, as there are a number of other variations on this that come to mind (more fresh peppers, a few nuggets of a spicy sausage, etc).

I would give this high marks for combination of little effort (we made it again on a week night), minimal cleanup, low cost and good flavor. Making this amount for a family of four will also do 2-3 meals, so this is a good recipe to make on a weekend and then have for an easy dinner or two during the following week.

White Chicken Chili

Another favorite kids' recipe is White Chicken Chili (p. 365, More Best Recipes, America's Test Kitchen, 2009). I generally make this on a weekend so that we can have leftovers for the work/school week ahead.

The recipe calls for browning chicken pieces, then making a thin salsa-like mixture of onions and different varieties of green chili peppers in a blender or food processor. The blender mixture goes back in the pot with more minced chilis, cumin, coriander and garlic.

Chili and onion base cooking down

This cooks for a while, then some of it goes back in the blender with some white beans, and gets pulsed again to break down the beans. This will help thicken the sauce so you don't end up with soup. The vegetable-bean mixture goes back in to the pot with stock, more whole white beans and the chicken to simmer until done. In the version in the picture I added a diced red bell pepper to add a splash of color.

Final simmering

Total cooking time is close to an hour and a half, but much of that time is different phases of simmering. As far as work goes, there is a decent bit of chopping, and there are a couple of different uses of the blender. It's not a difficult recipe by any means, but does require your attention for good portions of the cooking time. The spiciness can be adjusted depending on the types of green chilis you use. The dish can be garnished the same way you would for a beef chili: green onions, shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapenos, etc.