Good Ol Chili Recipes

OLD MAMA'S FASHIONED CHILI

Steps:

• Cook and stir ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat until crumbly and browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain.
• Stir drained ground beef, black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, green bell peppers, yellow onion, garlic, and chili seasoning together in a large pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are slightly tender and chili is heated through, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with hot sauce, salt, and ground black pepper to taste.

JUST YOUR GOOD OL' CHILI

Steps:

• Brown the ground beef in a very large heavy soup pot, drain off fat and return beef to pot.
• Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally so beans do not scorch.
• Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 hours.
• Add cilantro leaves and serve, or portion out and freeze.

NOT THICK, BUT NOT TOO THIN, GOOD OLD ORIGINAL CHILI

Steps:

• Chop all of the onions, peppers, and celery and defrost the beef.
• In a deep bowl, squash the whole tomatoes until they are coarse, but still retain their chunkiness and set them aside for use later.
• In a separate pan, place the beef.
• Cook the beef until it is at a medium--medium-well.
• Drain all of the fat out of the meat pan.
• In the desired soup pot, cook the chopped peppers, onions, and celery.
• Add the meat to the vegetables.
• Add the chili powder and cumin to the meat and vegetables.
• Cook until all of the ingredients have been covered with the chili powder and cumin, or until they take on a red color.
• Add the previously squashed tomatoes to the soup pot.
• Mix well, then add the beans and all of their juice.
• Finally, add the tomato juice.
• Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 2 hours (this could be less time, if desired, but keep in mind the longer the simmer, the better the taste).
• Serve, but be careful because it's extremely hot!

DAVE'S OLD FASHIONED CHILI

Steps:

• In a frying pan, brown ground beef. Drain. Add remaining ingredients and drained ground beef into a 6 quart pot. Cover and simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.
• A note added: "Dave likes to add fresh, chopped onions on top of his chili serving.".
• My note: I'm guessing that by "small red beans" he meant pinto beans.
• This yields 16 (8 ounce) servings.

CHILLI CON CARNE RECIPE

Steps:

• Prepare your vegetables. Chop 1 large onion into small dice, about 5mm square. The easiest way to do this is to cut the onion in half from root to tip, peel it and slice each half into thick matchsticks lengthways, not quite cutting all the way to the root end so they are still held together. Slice across the matchsticks into neat dice.
• Cut 1 red pepper in half lengthways, remove stalk and wash the seeds away, then chop. Peel and finely chop 2 garlic cloves.
• Start cooking. Put your pan on the hob over a medium heat. Add 1 tbsp oil and leave it for 1-2 minutes until hot (a little longer for an electric hob).
• Add the onion and cook, stirring fairly frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft, squidgy and slightly translucent.
• Tip in the garlic, red pepper, 1 heaped tsp hot chilli powder or 1 level tbsp mild chilli powder, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp ground cumin.
• Give it a good stir, then leave it to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Brown 500g lean minced beef. Turn the heat up a bit, add the meat to the pan and break it up with your spoon or spatula. The mix should sizzle a bit when you add the mince.
• Keep stirring and prodding for at least 5 minutes, until all the mince is in uniform, mince-sized lumps and there are no more pink bits. Make sure you keep the heat hot enough for the meat to fry and become brown, rather than just stew.
• Make the sauce. Crumble 1 beef stock cube into 300ml hot water. Pour this into the pan with the mince mixture.
• Add a 400g can of chopped tomatoes. Tip in ½ tsp dried marjoram, 1 tsp sugar and add a good shake of salt and pepper. Squirt in about 2 tbsp tomato purée and stir the sauce well.
• Simmer it gently. Bring the whole thing to the boil, give it a good stir and put a lid on the pan. Turn down the heat until it is gently bubbling and leave it for 20 minutes.
• Check on the pan occasionally to stir it and make sure the sauce doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan or isn't drying out. If it is, add a couple of tablespoons of water and make sure that the heat really is low enough. After simmering gently, the saucy mince mixture should look thick, moist and juicy.
• Drain and rinse a 410g can of red kidney beans in a sieve and stir them into the chilli pot. Bring to the boil again, and gently bubble without the lid for another 10 minutes, adding a little more water if it looks too dry.
• Taste a bit of the chilli and season. It will probably take a lot more seasoning than you think.
• Now replace the lid, turn off the heat and leave your chilli to stand for 10 minutes before serving. This is really important as it allows the flavours to mingle.
• Serve with soured cream and plain boiled long grain rice.