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AlDente67

I appeal to you, my brothers, for a rocking Chili Recipe

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I am planning to enter a pot of Chili in the Hightstown Harvest Fair on Oct 12 for nothing but bragging rights (or at least a good lunch).

 

I love a well-balanced chili...not too spicy, a little bit of a kick, but where you can still savor the flavor of the beans, somewhat chunky ground beef, and whatever else.

 

(yes, I can't believe I used that phrase either)

 

If you have a recipe that sounds like what I am after, please share.  In return, you get free Chili!

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OK, one I developed for the Scouts to be done in a cast iron Dutch Oven but works in regular pot as well. It has won first place at the Scout Master Invitational at USMA, West Point.

 

1 1/2 lbs. ground meat, your choice, browned. Season meat while cooking as you see fit. Nothing crazy, just add a flavor, your choice.

When browned, add to that 3-4 cans petite dice tomatotes (drained)the 13-15 oz size. You know what I mean. Factory Seasoned if you like.

Add to that 1 or 2 1 lb jars of salsa, again you choose the heat level thick and chunky or whatever, or mix it up.

Add 3-4 1 lb can of red kidney beans (drained) or your choice again.

Mix thoroughly in the pot and bring to a boil.

Lower heat to simmer, just enough to see a few bubbles, you know what I mean.

Simmer uncovered to allow excess moisture to escape and the diced tomatoes to break down. About 2-3 hours.

 

Serve with Corn bread muffins or those biscuits that come in the tube.

 

 

At Boy Scouts they would cook this over an open fire in a Dutch Oven when it got close to done they would put the biscuit dough on top of the chili, cover with lid and put coals on top of lid. Ready to serve when the biscuits were done.

 

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

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Thanks Bro,  one of the stipulations to enter is that the pot must be prepared in a commercial kitchen (we have one at the Elks Lodge), and then kept at 135 degrees overnight - basically leaving the crock pot on for 6 hours.  This is a health requirement by the town.

I don't want the mixture to get killed with such a long cook time.  Would low and slow overnight starting raw work?  They basically require the pot to be delivered at 10pm the night before, and then the pot stay on until 6am to be transported to the tent downtown.

 

Maybe lid off like you said to get it going, then lid on overnight to stay warm?

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Might work, just don't want to burn to bottom turns bitter then. I understand Serve Safe and Food Prep and to keep greater than 140 or below 40, but to let it stay on six hours? Can you make it, refrigerate it and reheat in AM? If it cooks to long the beans will break down to mush. Hell give it a try, bring it to a boil reduce heat right away to low, low simmer, just cover it to keep moisture in, then uncover it to allow excess moisture to escape and hope for the best.

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My wife makes really good chilli and usually does it in a crock pot.  I can ask her for the recipe if you still need it, but i dont think she follows it to a T.  She gets pretty creative and kind of does her own thing.  Last time she made it she also put in some pumpkin and it was BANGIN! :)

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I wouldn't start with raw meat in the crock pot.  It could be done safely, sure, but browning the meat first changes the flavor profile in a good way.    I also favor cubed beef over ground in chili.  I chop up london broil into pieces averaging maybe 3/8" on a side.  It takes time, but sets your entry apart from all of those using hamburger.

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I agree with the cubed london broil (and lately it's been cheaper then ground beef). Also, I'll often replace 1/3 of the meat with italian sausage - I've won 2 competitions doing this. You can also replace 1 can of the kidney beans with black beans - gives a nice flavor profile.

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I use 2lbs stew meat.. 1 can of chopped tomatos, 1 can crushed, 2 onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 jalepeno, 1/4 cup sarachi, NO BEANS!!!, and if i feel like it some pork shoulder. Put it all in a crock pot and let it stew and fall apart. For a sauce i take 3-5 jalepenos, vegi oil, and 2-3 whole garlic cloves and blend them into a sauce to add for heat. Good luck

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I've used this recipe for a few competitions and many parties:

 

I start off with ground meatloaf mix (beef, veal, pork), season the meat thoroughly with garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, dried onion, and chili powder while browning. Remove the meat and de-glaze with your favorite Bourbon (I prefer Jim Beam for this). Burn off the alcohol then add the meat back in with tomatoes and beans. Adjust heat to taste but keep in mind the flavor and heat will increase with the long cook time as the water evaporates.

 

 

Now for my secret trick: pulled pork. I love to add it in toward the end of the cook time to give a little complexity to the flavor and add a different texture. Easiest way to do the pulled pork is to season a pork shoulder with salt pepper and garlic powder, brown it and then place in a crock pot with 1 cup BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays is cheap with great flavor) and 1 cup water. Cook it on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4. Let it cool a bit and tear it apart, mixing some additional sauce in to add flavor

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This one is pretty simple, but I like it...

 

 

2 lbs. ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 15 oz cans red kidney beans, with liquid (see notes below)

2 15 oz cans pinto beans, with liquid (see notes below)

1 29 oz can tomato sauce

1 29 oz can diced tomatoes

3 tbs. cumin

3 tbs. chili powder

1 tbs. cayenne pepper

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. black pepper

Vegetable oil

 

Optional:

3-4 jalapenos, diced (The more seeds you put in, the hotter the chili – if you want it spicy, put in some of the seeds)

Hot Sauce (I usually put about 2 tbs.)

 

Directions:

 

Put about 2 tbs. of oil in a frying pan on med-high heat and sauté the onion and pepper(s) until the onion is translucent. Try not to brown the onion too much. Drain as much of the oil out as you can and put the veggies in a slow cooker.

 

Put the frying put back on the heat and brown the beef. Make sure you drain the fat off before you put it into the slow cooker.

 

Then just add all the other ingredients and let it cook on low for about 8 hours, or high for about 3-4.

 

 

Notes:

 

If you like it a little thicker, then drain the liquid from the beans.

 

I like to use a slow cooker, but if you want to be eating in about an hour, just cook the veggies and beef in the frying pan like normal, but then put it all into a big pot on the stove and just cook it on medium heat for about an hour or so.

 

In actuality, if you can make it the day before, either in a slow cooker or on the stove, it tastes a helluva lot better the next day.

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Esp if you are going to be holding temps for a long time, like a crock pot, I agree with not using ground beef. Use a london broil or a beef roast cut into small chunks. The long slow cooking will turn it into tender melt-in-mouth chunks that are soooo much more interesting in terms of texture and taste than ground  beef. Add some  balsamic vinegar for some different flavor, and some fresh ancho chillies....

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must have beer,beef stock and some kind of tomato product v8, tomato juice or crushed tomatoes. season several times 1st while meat is browning some more after the beer and again at the end after tasting mash 25% of the beans and add it in this will tighten it up

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must have beer,beef stock and some kind of tomato product v8, tomato juice or crushed tomatoes. season several times 1st while meat is browning some more after the beer and again at the end after tasting mash 25% of the beans and add it in this will tighten it up

 

This^ +100  and another +100 for deglazing with bourbon!!

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Slow Cooker Award Winning Chili

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/soup/chili/slow-cooker-award-winning-chili.html

 Its got beer in it! my aunt made this once and its so good!

 

I had to pick one, so I tried this one.  Thanks to all, and thanks to OG.

 

Here is what happened...

 

Ran to the store to get the ingredients...  Lots of them on the list (what is a Chili stick?)  Got just about all and set about cooking.  Since I doubled the recipe, I needed two large crock pots to work all of it through the night.

 

Set up the table with 12 pots cooked by members of the Elks club.  I meant my second pot to be a backup when the first one gets empty, but another member set them both up as #4 and #9 in the row.  Same exact Chili, but we wanted to have fun with the voting.

 

By 1pm we almost cleaned out.  The deal is that you pay $3 for a bowl and a spoon, then you can sample all entries down the line, then pick your favorite and get a full bowl of that one.  Fantastic deal, compared to the $5 burger the next tent had on offer.

 

#4 got 3rd place in votes, and #9 got about 5th place.  Keeping in mind these were identical chilis, I won handily.  All the proceeds go to Vets charities.

 

Have to figure out how to contact the author of the recipe to give her credit.

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I wouldn't start with raw meat in the crock pot.  It could be done safely, sure, but browning the meat first changes the flavor profile in a good way.    I also favor cubed beef over ground in chili.  I chop up london broil into pieces averaging maybe 3/8" on a side.  It takes time, but sets your entry apart from all of those using hamburger.

Its called the "millard" (sp?) principle.  Its a frech term pronounced Miyard.  Basically the browning you see are the sugars concentrating as they cook and that translates into flavor. 

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I had to pick one, so I tried this one.  Thanks to all, and thanks to OG.

Congratulations on the success.

 

One way to cook things at a low heat for a long time is in a water bath.  Basically, put the crock pot container into a larger pot and fill that with water.  Put it in an oven at the temp you need to hold and viola.  No burning.  You may need to top off the water depending on how long you are holding it at temp.  It's the saem principle as poaching.  The thing you are cooking never gets hotter than the liquid you are cooking it in.

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