Hello everyone. So I decided to make chili last night and as I really like this recipe, I wanted to share it with you. I'm also trying to make a video of the cooking process but it is taking some time to edit it together. Hopefully I can get it done and uploaded to YouTube in the next week or so, but I may need to make a second batch in order to get all the steps.
Anyway, let's start with the ingredients you're going to need:
~ 4 Tri-Tip Roasts trimmed of fat and cut into 1/4" cubes
(Note: Tri-Tip is primarily a West coast cut of meat. If you can't get this at your local grocer, you can also use ground beef, beef chuck, brisket, or short ribs. Your average tri-tip is about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds, so if you use an alternative, make sure you start with about 8 pounds of meat. Tri-Tip should cost you about $6.99 per pound. Just an FYI, King Soopers in Denver has recently started carrying this cut, but are charging $8.99 per pound for it.)
~ 4 16 oz cans beef broth (I used 2 32 oz boxes of Progresso beef broth)
~ 1 16 oz can tomato sauce (I used 2 8 oz cans of Hunt's tomato sauce)
~ 4 Tablespoons cumin
~ 2 Tablespoons chili powder
~ 2 cups chopped onions
~ 8 minced garlic cloves
~ 1 can Ortega green chiles (comes in 4 oz and 7 oz cans. I used the 7 oz can)
~ 4 Jalapeno peppers
~ 3 Tablespoons oregano
~ cayenne pepper
Now I'm going to go through the recipe as it is written, and then add my notes to what I did differently and why.
1. Place meat into clean bowl. Add cumin and chili powder over meat, mix together and let stand for 1 hour.
2. Brown meat in a little oil.
3. Mix in 1 can of broth to loosen drippings.
4. Add tomato sauce and mix well.
5. Add rest of broth, onions, garlic to kettle.
6. Add green chiles.
7. Boil jalapenos for 40 minutes.
8. Puree jalapenos in food processor/blender.
9. Add jalapeno puree to kettle along with oregano.
10. Cayenne pepper to taste.
11. Simmer all day.
So there you have it. All seems fairly simple, right? Let me first tell you that cutting the tri-tip is going to take you some time if you're doing it by yourself. I think I'm a pretty OK chef, and it took me about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to cut 4 tri-tips. Now I went a little against the recipe on this and I'll tell you why.
First, I started boiling the water for the jalapenos. Since this prep step is going to take close to an hour, I'd say go ahead and start this first. That way you can set it and forget it. Once the water is boiling, add your jalapenos and boil for 40 minutes. I reduced the heat to medium-high so as not to boil all the water down.
Now I'm using a slow cooker instead of a stove-top kettle or stock pot, soo I did not season the meat before browning. The reason for this is I drained the meat before putting into the slow cooker and I did not want to lose any of the flavor from the spices in the run off. So I browned the meat unseasoned, drained, and placed into the slow cooker.
Next I sautéed the onions and garlic. You can put these in the kettle raw, but sautéing them coaxes the maximum amount of flavor before adding to your chili. The recipe doesn't specify type of onions but you're going to want to use either yellow or white onions for this chili recipe. I went with white. White onions are sharper than yellow onions, while yellow onions are hardy with a complex and spicy flavor. I sautéed the onions for about 5 minutes, until the onions were soft and slightly translucent. Then I added the garlic and browned the outside, about 1 minute (be careful not to burn). Then I added about half of one of the boxes of beef broth to the onions and garlic to deglaze the pan, and added both cans of tomato sauce. I stirred all of this together in the pan for a short time, then added to the slow cooker over the tri-tip.
At this point I added all of our measured spices to the slow cooker, the cumin, chili powder, and oregano. I also added the can of green chiles and the rest of the already opened box of beef broth and stirred it together. The last time I made this chili it was a bit watery so you may not need to use all 64 oz of broth. I'll go over some other thickening steps later.
At this point the jalapenos were done so I removed them from the water (careful, it's hot). You will want to destem them jalapenos. I cut the tops off, but the stems will easily pull off. Now you have a choice to make. You can puree the jalapenos as is, or you can deseed them if you wish. Leaving the seeds will increase the potency of the jalapeno, while removing the seeds will mellow the heat but still deliver all the flavor. I chose to be a Viking and leave the seeds in. If you want to deseed your jalapenos, cut them in half, then use a spoon to scoop out the core and seeds. You may also want to wear gloves as the oil from the jalapeno will stay on your skin for a while. If you don't wear gloves, be sure not to touch your eyes after handling the jalapenos. Then I tossed the jalapenos into the food processor and pureed. I then added the jalapeno puree to my slow cooker and stirred.
The final step was to add the cayenne pepper. Now this is just used to taste so you can use a little or a lot or none at all. I used a little. You can always add more later, but you can't take spice away once it's added. Finally I added about half of the last box of beef broth and set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours. If the chili starts to cook down too much, you can always add more of the beef broth as needed.
Now, if you want to thicken your chili, there are a few ways you can do this. You can add a slurry using either flour or cornstarch. If using flour, remove 1/4 cup of the liquid from your chili into a separate bowl and add 2 Tablespoons of flour to the liquid. Mix together until the mixture is smooth and without lumps. Add slurry to the chili and stir. The stirring and heat should thicken the chili. If using cornstarch, you want to use 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch to 1 Tablespoon of liquid. If you want to let the chili naturally reduce, cook the chili uncovered for an additional 30 to 60 minutes. I think this might work better if using a stove top kettle. If you don't want to add anything to the chili, you can also thicken upon serving. Just add your choice in your own bowl. You can use oyster crackers or saltines, crushed corn chips, crumbled corn bread, or grated cheese. I'm definitely trying the corn chips and corn bread ideas.
Here's my personal serving suggestion. If you're from Cincinnati you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here. Cincinnati has 2 chains of chili restaurants, Skyline Chili and Gold Star Chili. At either restaurant you can get a coney, that's a hot dog folks. So for a regular coney you have your hot dog, topped with chili and chopped onions (with or without mustard). The cheese coney adds shredded cheddar cheese on top. Or if you don't want a hot dog, you can go with a "Way" instead. Your basic 3-Way is spaghetti topped with chili and cheddar cheese, a 4-Way adds beans or onions, and a 5-Way adds beans AND onions. If you want to add beans, I'd suggest just using canned kidney beans.
That's all folks. Feel free to add or adjust to your leisure and taste. Bon appetite.
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