Ok, chili purists, this stretches the definition of chili. You don't enter this into a chili cookoff. This is for home consumption, and it is tasty.
About half of the volume of this chili is some sort of pepper. This allows the chili to be hearty, but a little more healthy, and also a little cheaper. This fills my crock pot to the absolute brim. Adjust ingredients as your pot size allows.
Three meats. About 1lb of each:
1) Chili meat (or, ground beef in a pinch)
2) Andouille sausage
3) Chicken
Five types of peppers:
1) 2 bell
2) 2 poblano
3) 2 Anaheim
4) 8 or so "sweet peppers"
5) 1 to 5 jalapenos, depending on how hot you want it. Sub Habaneros to really bring it.
Seven "seasonings"
1) One large, or two medium size onions
2) 10 - 12 oz can of crushed tomatoes, (Rotel in a pinch, but not my favorite)
3) Up to 1 head of Garlic
4) Salt to taste
5) 1 to 2 Tbs Mexican oregano
6) 1 to 2 Tbs whole cumin seed
7) 1/2 cup chili sauce*
First step, chili sauce. Make it with dried chilis. I use about 2/3rds guajillo, 1/3rd ancho. Toast, seed, rehydrate, blender. Lots of places on the internet to teach you how to do this right.
Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until they smell awesome.
Brown the beef in the toasted cumin seeds.
Peel and dice the garlic, or roast it. I have done it both ways, either is fine. Roasting a whole head of garlic is actually a pretty easy way to peel it, and then you don't have to dice it. Just cut off the bottom 1/4 inch or so of the head, put wrap it in foil with some olive oil, and roast in in a 350 degree oven. If done right, you should be able to squeeze the garlic out of the paper shell one clove at a time from the hole you cut in the bottom of the head.
Cut your sausage into half-disks.
Cut chicken into bite size chunks. Not super important about size, actually, as long as the chunks are no larger than an inch or so cubed, roughly (more about chicken later)
Next step, chop the fresh peppers and onions. I usually chop them pretty chunky, they are going to break down quite a bit. These vegetables are going to provide you most of your liquids, so we are going to put these on the bottom. If you are cooking on a stove as opposed to a crock pot, maybe put in half an inch of water in the bottom of the pan to prevent burning. If in a crock pot, no additional water needed.
After the peppers and onion, add chicken, browned beef, cumin, tomatoes, oregano, garlic, salt. Put the chili sauce on the top. Cook low and slow. When the veggies have released their liquids, and you have a stew, stir.
You can wait to add the sausage until an hour or two before serving. It does tend to dry out in the crock pot over a long cook.
After the chicken has cooked for a while in a very acidic stew, it will start to break up. Eventually, it will turn into little pieces of string, especially the breast meat. This adds some great texture to the chili. Very yum.
Serve over cornbread or rice. Doesn't make the best Frito pie.
Purists, flame away. Don't knock this until you have tried it, though. Comments / critiques welcome.
About half of the volume of this chili is some sort of pepper. This allows the chili to be hearty, but a little more healthy, and also a little cheaper. This fills my crock pot to the absolute brim. Adjust ingredients as your pot size allows.
Three meats. About 1lb of each:
1) Chili meat (or, ground beef in a pinch)
2) Andouille sausage
3) Chicken
Five types of peppers:
1) 2 bell
2) 2 poblano
3) 2 Anaheim
4) 8 or so "sweet peppers"
5) 1 to 5 jalapenos, depending on how hot you want it. Sub Habaneros to really bring it.
Seven "seasonings"
1) One large, or two medium size onions
2) 10 - 12 oz can of crushed tomatoes, (Rotel in a pinch, but not my favorite)
3) Up to 1 head of Garlic
4) Salt to taste
5) 1 to 2 Tbs Mexican oregano
6) 1 to 2 Tbs whole cumin seed
7) 1/2 cup chili sauce*
First step, chili sauce. Make it with dried chilis. I use about 2/3rds guajillo, 1/3rd ancho. Toast, seed, rehydrate, blender. Lots of places on the internet to teach you how to do this right.
Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until they smell awesome.
Brown the beef in the toasted cumin seeds.
Peel and dice the garlic, or roast it. I have done it both ways, either is fine. Roasting a whole head of garlic is actually a pretty easy way to peel it, and then you don't have to dice it. Just cut off the bottom 1/4 inch or so of the head, put wrap it in foil with some olive oil, and roast in in a 350 degree oven. If done right, you should be able to squeeze the garlic out of the paper shell one clove at a time from the hole you cut in the bottom of the head.
Cut your sausage into half-disks.
Cut chicken into bite size chunks. Not super important about size, actually, as long as the chunks are no larger than an inch or so cubed, roughly (more about chicken later)
Next step, chop the fresh peppers and onions. I usually chop them pretty chunky, they are going to break down quite a bit. These vegetables are going to provide you most of your liquids, so we are going to put these on the bottom. If you are cooking on a stove as opposed to a crock pot, maybe put in half an inch of water in the bottom of the pan to prevent burning. If in a crock pot, no additional water needed.
After the peppers and onion, add chicken, browned beef, cumin, tomatoes, oregano, garlic, salt. Put the chili sauce on the top. Cook low and slow. When the veggies have released their liquids, and you have a stew, stir.
You can wait to add the sausage until an hour or two before serving. It does tend to dry out in the crock pot over a long cook.
After the chicken has cooked for a while in a very acidic stew, it will start to break up. Eventually, it will turn into little pieces of string, especially the breast meat. This adds some great texture to the chili. Very yum.
Serve over cornbread or rice. Doesn't make the best Frito pie.
Purists, flame away. Don't knock this until you have tried it, though. Comments / critiques welcome.
