I usually add some Frank's Red Hot sauce. It doesn't add a whole lot if you have a bunch of simmering peppers, but it does give it a little wing flavor which I like.

Another thing that is a little weird that I have used before are various kinds of sodas. Some people like a little sweet flavor, some people don't. I have done 1 to 2 cups of Coke, Dr. Pepper and Root Beer before (separate batches, not all of those together). Have used lime juice before too.

the vinegar is for a bit of complexity and to balance the sugar elements a bit. Its kind of like how you put a little bit of vinegar in onion soup but the end result isn't really sour.

If you are already putting in a vinegar based hot sauce, I might just skip the vinegar. But just taste to see. If the chili is slightly too sweet for you and starting to taste like a spicy manwich, add some vinegar.

man, how did i leave this out, Franks Red hot is great, and I always put it in.

re carrots: valid points regarding re the mirepoix, but it adds a certain sweetness/earthiness to the chilli, try it out, im curious to see if ppl like it as much as i do

Never made chilli before, will cook up a batch based on what I see in this thread in a day or two. I will probably add beans though.

What meats would you use and how would you use them, besides the ground beef?

1 jalapeño sounds like a really low amount though...I was just at the store and bought a handful and a couple scotch bonnet peppers. Never tried those before but they were on sale. I will skip on the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce since I forgot to buy them.

I like this recipe quite a bit:

1 1/2 lb ground beef, lean or drained
1 1/2 lb beef chuck in 1/2" chunks
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can chili beans in tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomato (I like petite diced)
2 jalapeno chopped
1 bell, whatever color is on sale
1-2 habanero (depends on how hot you like it) Chopping/ slitting, etc is how you manage the heat here.
1 bottle porter or guinness extra stout
Couple of tablespoons of chili powder
1 tablespoon of cayenne
Some paprika
Some garlic powder (depends on what you added earlier)

I like to brown the beef up, when it is getting done add the onion and garlic and sweat the onion until it clears. Then I add the peppers, a few minutes later add the cans, then the spices, finally the beer. It will look like chili and smell like beer at this point, let it cook for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. You will have to adjust the spices, it is not magic.

Serve over fritos, top with cheddar cheese. Enjoy.

Usually when I am adjusting flavor I add some Franks, I like the vinegar that it adds, plus it is on par with the overall flavors.

very nice El D! i'm going to use this thread to attempt to convince my roommate that we need to make chili instead of the silly stew he was planning on making this weekend. will obv post trip report!

P.S. NICE1 ON THE NO BEANS!

Today it was cold outside and I had nothing to do so I made chili. The great thing about chili is it takes an idiot of the highest degree to mess it up.



I’m using ground chuck, light and dark kidney beans, the enigmatically named “chili beans”, as well as two cans of diced tomatoes, fresh garlic, one medium onion and various spices.

Normally I use 2 cans of black beans and one can of kidney beans but as the title implies, today is Black Friday and there is no way I was venturing out to the store. A friend of mine actually punched someone at Wal-Mart this morning. True story. I also normally use canned tomatoes from my garden but this years tomato harvest was kind of a bust.

Anyway, I start by browning the beef and adding 1/2 of my onion, chopped, to the beef. I throw the rest of the onion in my soup pot and add all 3 cans of beans, bean-juice and all.

Also, as an added bonus, I found some lima beans and corn in the fridge left over from yesterdays feastings. I threw them in for the hell of it.

Once the beef is cooked drain it and add to the soup pot with everything else. At this point I like to add lots of pepper, a little salt, copious amounts of chili powder and two not-so-secret ingredients.



Weber Grill Creations Smoky Mesquite Seasoning. As the name suggests, this is typically used for grilling, but it gives my chili a nice “cooked over an open fire” taste, which pleases me greatly.



Louisiana Hot Sauce. For heat. This doesn’t really need explaining.

Once you have all of your ingredients together, turn the heat on low, and let them get to know each other for about 6 hours. Stir it occasionally. Enjoy it immensely.

Can't wait to make the cookless chili now. Not posting until I have an EXTREME CHILI CLOSEUP! or at least a picture to accompany it.

Chili-heads,

Thanks for all the suggestions, much appreciated. I am now about to start my second batch of chili. I'm adding the following ingredients to the stuff in my first post:



Celery, green onions, poblanos, red bell peppers (in place of green), more jalapenos and serranos, and a habanero! Also adding bourbon and chocolate.

More importantly, though, I'm upgrading the meat from just ground beef to:



2 lbs inside top round london broil, 1.5lbs 16% ground beef, 4 thick slices (1/3 lb) dry rub bacon.

Results in a few hours!

Really enjoyed my first batch of chili, but I def wanted to make it w/ a chunkier meat mix and also wanted it spicier and hotter. So I changed up the meat mixture, and added way more peppers and spices. Also added celery, red bell peppers, poblanos, green onion, bourbon, and chocolate to the mix. I also wanted a little more tomato flavor so I added some tomato paste.

First, browned the following meat:
Ground Beef (1.5 lbs, 16% fat)
Inside Top Round London Broil (2lbs)
Bacon (4 strips/.33lb)



Took a few tablespoons of that fat and sauteed up the following chopped veggies:
Poblano peppers (2 medium)
Bell peppers (2 small red)
Onions (2 medium)
Green onions (small bunch)
Celery (a few stalks)



Separately sauteed up the following chopped up mixture:
Garlic (8 cloves)
Jalapeno Peppers (2)
Serrano Peppers (5)
Habanero Pepper (1)



Added the pepper mix plus chopped up Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce (5) to the other vegetables.

Added in the meat.

Then added the following spices (approx):

Red chili flakes (1 tsp)
Black pepper (1 tsp)
Cumin (2 tsp)
Paprika (4 tsp)
Chili Powder (7 tsp)
Sea Salt (3 tsp)
Brown Sugar (3 tsp)

Then added a bottle of beer (blue moon wheat beer) and a couple shots of bourbon and brought it all to a boil.

Then added:
Crushed Tomatoes (28oz can)
Tomato Paste (small can)
Chicken Broth (~8oz)
Distilled White Vinegar (couple teaspoons)

which gets us to here:


It has been going about an hour now:



Another hour or so and I add:
1.5oz dark chocolate, grated
Jalapeno Tortilla chips (a couple handfuls, 10-15 chips, crushed)
added a little extra salt and vinegar too



Now just gotta wait for it to simmer another ~45 minutes, cool, and eat!

holy **** el d, review that chili now!

EDF Team Chili,

The finished product:

In a bowl:

Topped with onions, green onions, jalapeno, grated cheddar, and sour cream. And in honor of Thanksgiving, served with a side of cornbread stuffing:

Very, very happy with the way this turned out. Definitely more complex flavor then the prior batch (spicier and richer w/ just a hint of sweetness coming through), and the mix of cubed + ground meat makes for a great texture and very satisfying bite.

Edited to add: Just had a second bowl, this time w/ no toppings. This chili stands on its own really great. I love putting a ton of stuff on top of regular ground beef chili, but this I definitely prefer eating plain. Yum. I do think next time I'll go for 50/50 meat mix, just a little bit more ground beef in this would be good. OK, now I will go sleep for many hours!

good stuff. beer is the key. dont get fancy with the beer. chili is best the third day anyway.

El Diablo your color & consistency look flawless

Although there is no "wrong" when making chili, a couple things seemed that way to me when reading your post.

If you were browning all that meat at once in that skillet, I would definitely say you're crowding your meat and making the browning process harder on yourself. I would take two strips of bacon and add your ground beef, brown, move to final chili pot and then take your other two strips of bacon, add your LB, brown and move.

It almost seems you're taking it too lightly on the spices, especially if you wanted it "spicier and hotter". Maybe all your peppers make up for it. It's easy to suffocate elements when making chili, so something I started doing last chili season is adding two spice mixes at different times in the cooking process. Here I present two spice mixes, the first added at the beginning, then cooked for 1.5 hours, add the second mix and cook for 0.5 more hours, then consume. Brings the spices right up to the nose and on the tongue.

Spice Mix 1:
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 tablespoons Texas-style chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Spice Mix 2:
3 tablespoons Texas-style chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Again, there is no right & wrong, but Blue Moon? Dark beer all day. Either straight Guinness or something like a Coffee Porter.

Definitely use a homemade chili powder for chili and not store bought crap, that's the only flaw I see in any of these. Last one by ELD looks amazing

If you don't mind the extra work the above should help noticeably. I've always been a fan of using chocolate, some cook I used to work with put coffee in his but not sure exactly how (end result was pretty good). Random chinese tip: star anise and sicuan peppercorn do really well in most any braised beef dish.

Damn now i want chili, and stuffing...

Second chili looks impressive.

ElD, looks like your second time around you figured out what I was going to tell you is one of the keys to good chili IMO. You GOTSTA brown the meat first. In the first example it looks like you sauted your veggies first, which takes away some of the power of properly seasoned and browned meat. Other than that, both efforts look tip top.

Jihad: Yeah, a couple of other helpful folks hit on that, definite improvement.

rapid: Definitely, re: the browning. I underestimated the volume of meat when looking at it and the skillet, haha. Turned out OK in the end though. Re: beer, last time I used oatmeal stout which worked out fine. However, Alton Brown recommended not using porters or stouts due to them getting bitter when cooked (I didn't notice that happen last time). In any case, the truth is I just looked in the fridge for what beer I had that I didn't like that much, and I had some Blue Moon someone had brought over recently, so just used that. Worked out fine. I think I have about the same amount of total spices as you? But I will try out adding them in two batches - I've seen that recommended in a few recipes. This batch definitely came out plenty spicy.

All: Thanks for all comments/advice, will incorporate new tips into third batch!

there are some spices you are missing imo.

allspice is necessary. as are cloves and bay leaves.

i make mine cinci style which involves boiling the ground beef and then adding the spices and onions and peppers and tomato juice. let simmer for like 2-4 hrs. serve over pasta with cheese and beans on top. mebbe oyster crackers too. use unsweetened chocolate in cinci style too.

made a great batch of chili last night, but I'm a clown and didn't take pics. My girlfriend has a low tolerance for spicy food, so had to keep this one pretty toned down, but it still came out really nice. Despite the lack of pics, I will go ahead with my recipe.

Ingredients:

1.5lb ground beef (16%fat)
1.5 large spanish onions
2 poblano peppers
2 Jalapenos
5 garlic cloves
2 canned chipotles
12 oz Great Divide Baltic Smoked Porter
28 oz Crushed tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon
Chili powder
Cumin
Paprika
Cayenne
Brown Sugar
Tobasco
Sach's Scotch Bonnet Cumin Garlic hot sauce

Step 1: Saute onions and poblanos in oil for 10 mins or so until soft

Step 2: Add garlic, jalapenos, chipotles, cook for another 5 mins

Step 3: Add ground beef

Step 4: Once beef is about 90% done, add copious amounts of Chili Powder, more cumin than you think you need, and a generous amount of paprika and cayenne. Add Salt, a little bit of cinnamon, brown sugar, saute for a couple minutes

Step 5: Add Beer, bring to a boil

Step 6: Once beer has boiled for about 5 mins, add tomatoes, tobasco to taste, and scotch bonnet hot sauce, continue to boil until chili thickens noticeably and turn heat to low and let it simmer as long as your heart desires.

Will post pics of finished product tomorrow when I get back home.




Next time, I'm definitely going to use bacon and chuck, and I'm going to experiment with dark chocolate and some homemade beef stock. I'm also going to probably crank up the heat quite a bit, and horde it to myself since my gf wont be able to eat it Also, sorry for lack of measurements, I just toss stuff in the pot.

+1 to cubed beef over ground beef. Corn bread is also a great side choice.

went ahead and made a batch, pretty much followed diablo's second recipe. the dish was limited by the poorish quality last-minute meat, and by the fact that you will simply not find stuff like chipotles in adobo sauce in english supermarkets. anyway, i will try to find some more exotic ingredients online for next time.



veg cut rather large and lazily



just after the guinness was added. gf wanted beans in the dish :



mature cheddar + sour cream :



served with garlic bread, tortilla chips and karl pilkington :




pretty good, solid depth of flavour but the heat wasn't really there due to the crappy chilies. i guess i should have ramped up the chili powder and spices. in the end i just threw some more flakes in the bowl.

If you use beans, buy them dry an rehydrate them yourself. Makes 100% improvement in bean quality.

interesting . . . in what ways are they different?