I like the smokiness of paprika and it adds a lot of color.

while I agree that cinnamon and to an extent oregano is more Mexican, these days I find cinnamon more prevalent in sweeter chilis and thus I find it more of an optional ingredient.

Thanks for the spice hierarchy.

What's the general preference for tomato products? I've been lazy and have been just buying the big 28oz cans of diced tomatoes. Should I also be adding tomato paste? Or just mashing up fresh tomatoes?

A pretty regular problem I have is that the chili ends up being either too dry or too watery - rarely thick.

you need thickener to make it thick. tomato paste will give it a lot of body and depth but wont be as acidic as say either diced tomato or canned whole plum tomato.

If you really just want to limit it to 1 tomato product, I would just use a canned whole plum tomato like some san marzanos.

The first of a new show on channel 4 (UK) has just been on called 'How to Cook like Heston'.
I'm curious to see what you chili purists think of his recipe.

Its fine. don't want to rehash the beans debate.

z,

I use one big thing of crushed tomatoes and one small thing of tomato paste. Adding the tomato paste makes it a little more tomato-ey and sweeter, so that is def not for everyone.

Whether to use fresh whole tomatoes, canned whole tomatoes, canned diced tomates, canned gound/crushed tomatoes or tomato paste depends at least in part upon what you will be using for liquid in your chili. I think canned whole tomatoes and canned diced tomaotes have thr most liquid, tomoto paste has the least. If you are adding beer, broth or water, then tomato paste adds flavour and some consitency without further diluting the stew. Or you can used canned whole tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes, and the liquid from the can may be enough for your stew. San Marzanos taste great.

How much liquid you need depends on how long you cook your chili. I like to slow cook chili for several hours. It lets me use cheaper cuts of meat and really blends the flavours. To accomplish this, I need enough liquid so that all the meat is covered throughout the cooking process. I use dark beer and canned cushed/ground tomatoes. If I was using more tender cuts of meat, I'd probably reduce the amount of beer, substitute tomato paste and cook a shorter length of time.

I've never had chili that was too dry. If I was faced with that problem I'd probably add a liquid that enhanced the flavour profile of the stew, such as beef broth or dark beer (some people use bourbon or tequila). If the result was too thin, I'd add tomato paste or ground crushed tomatoes.

When my chili is too soupy after the meat is tender, I either continue cooking with the lid off to reduce it, or add masa harina or corn meal if I can't wait much longer.

I like paprika too. I like a decidedly smoky character to my chili so I use double smoked bacon, chipotles and paprika in my usual recipe. I have even been known to sometimes add a little liquid mesquite smoke.

Paprika just doesn't seem to feature in many traditional chili recipes. I have seen chili recipes that had no cumin but lots of Mexican oregano.

I tend not to add anything to my chili that is a sweetener, other than tomatoes. Some folks use molasses or brown sugar. I like the illusion of sweetness that cinnamon can add, without the added sugars.

A decidedly English take on chili.

What's a "green chili"?

Marmite is an unusual, but suitable, ingredient for chili.

My take: not enough chilis and probably too mild.

Picked up some ingredients. So far have:
- grass fed ground beef, 80%
- yellow onion
- kosher salt & pepper
- cumin
- oregeno (though it's pretty old)
- kidney beans
- crushed tomatoes, 28oz
- tomato paste
- 5 jalapenos

I need to find real chilis I think, not just jalapenos. Will probably attempt this tomorrow. I think the reason I've been getting watery chili is because I usually only cook it for about 2 hours (after work).

Made slight variation on bdaddy's recipe last week.

- Didn't use short ribs (figured I should keep it simple with first batch of chili ever, and didn't feel like I was going to have the time available to cook it long enough to make short ribs excellently)

- Didn't do garlic or onion powder, just added more garlic and onion (thoughts on this?)

- used ~1/2 as much chilis in adobo, added two minced habaneros

I added a 28oz can of tomato (in addition to the small can listed) and about 12oz of beer. I feel like it's possible I chickened out here in some way, but there was really like 0 liquid content, and I didn't want to risk overcooking the meat in a non-braise waiting to see if enough liquid would release. Should I have just stirred for a while and trusted enough liquid would appear? Should I have gone with beef broth over additional tomato? Did I screw up something dumb?

Anyway, it turned out delicious. Having had it, and having the sauce come out tasting like a spicy version of many traditional short rib braises, I can see why it would be perfect in there. Next time!

How to ruin a batch of chili: After seeing several recipes w/ cocoa powder and molasses, I thought I'd add some melted bakers chocolate to my mix.

Holy crap did I ruin it.

lol, you complain about too many ingredients then you put in bakers chocolate?

my latest batch, its simmering right now, had no peppers unfortunately :-/

LOL. I decided I was finally going to pick up a few extra ingredients to improve my chili. Oops.

Melted? If you add chocolate to chili, shave it or grate it - don't melt it.

Did you burn the chocolate? How much did you use? How big was your batch of chili? How sweet was the chocolate? In what way did the addition of chocolate ruin your chili? How do you know it was the chocolate that was the problem?

I don't think your base recipe is complex enough for the chocolate to blend in. I'd def add more spices/herbs before adding chocolate. Also, you don't want to add a lot of chocloate. I use less than 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate in a recipe that makes about 2 quarts of chili.

One thing that's bothering me about most of these recipes, especially the recipes with photos, is the use of more than one pot/pan. It looks like you guys are browing in one pan/cast iron, the veggies in something else, and then everything goes into the final pot. I've always considered chili along with every other stew/braised dish to be a one pot operation. You brown the meat and pull it out, brown the veggies, do your degalzing and then add meat back along with the spices specifically so you get all of that wonderful fond in the pan. How do you capture that using all of those other pans?

Other than that, all of these recipes look awesome. Made a batch of chili for a potluck and used some Fritos to thicken and that turned out well.

I do it your way too, pulling meat out, etc..

As long as your final chili resides in the pot you browned the meat in, its fine. The vegetables don't produce a lot of fond and if you are doing separate pots/pans, you can always deglaze both then combine.

Aqua, amoeba: Noted, will do for next batch!

Yeah, I do the same. Veggies cook in a separate skillet, but meat gets browned in the pot.

If you guys want to go crazy and have a ton of time, this (non-traditional) recipe from Serious Eats is unbelievable. You will never go back to using chili powder from a jar. Some interesting additions though (e.g., anchovies, chocolate, vegemite, soy sauce!).

Made something very close to ElD's second attempt this weekend, great success. I think I could have used a bit more liquid, but gf was whining about the inclusion of beer.

It's snowing here, so I am making some today.

Weird recipe I guess, but used some homemade salsa instead of adding tomatoes, threw in a red and green pepper, jalapeno and am onion.

I must be doing it wrong, cuz I never brown my veggies, I always throw them in my crockpot raw and let them cook.

i dont brown veggies either, i dice them up pretty fine and throw them in, let them slow cook. the only thing i do it put the onions in with the meat when its browning