Dan's Home Made Super Bowl Chili - Store bought chili powder? We don't need no stinking store bought chili powder!!



Home made Chili  - yum!

 Ok, here is an amazing chili I made for the Super Bowl – even though only Lynne and I were watching…. Well, only I was watching, because she made me go in the other room…. No fire, no couch, no dog…. Just me and a 13” tv….. oh well.  To top it off, I think the spots were awful this year… anyway, this is a recipe I adapted from Cook’s Illustrated – made quite a few changes actually.  Came out unbelievably well – nothing like home made chili paste….. pan toasted chili’s…. yum. The house smelled amazing. 

This is a fairly labor intensive dish – not difficult, just time consuming.  Takes a good 3 hours to make,  about 1 hour of labor, and 2 cooking, with quite a bit of chopping, and food processing – but WELL worth it!  This is the first time I have made my own chili paste - will DEFINATELY be making it again!

So, here we go! 

Ingredients:

Table salt

1.5 lbs dried pinto beans, (about 1.5 cups) rinsed well

6 dried ancho, or New Mexico chilies – stems and seeds removed, with flesh cut into ½ inch pieces.

4 Chippotle in Adobo sauce peppers, with 2 tbs of sauce ( from can)

3 tbs corn meal

2 tsb dried oregano

3 tsb ground cumin

1 ts[ dried cilantro

3 tbs cocoa powder

3 cups chicken broth

1 4.25 can green chillies

1 tbs fresh chopped cilantro

zest from 1 lime

2 medium onions chopped

3 small Jalapeno peppers, stemmed and seeded, chopped

4 tbs olive oil

4 large cloves garlic, diced fine

1.5 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with liquid

3 tsp molasses

2.5 oz Beef Chuck Eye Roast, fat removed, and cubed into ¼ inch pieces

½ bottle Guinness Stout

Directions:

1-     Combine 3 tbs salt with 4 quarts water and beans in large 6 quart stock pot, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Cover, and remove from heat, let stand for 1 hour.  Drain, rinse well, and set aside.

2-     Place seeded, and stemmed ancho or New Mexican chilies in dry sauté pan, and toast over med – high heat.  Do NOT let them burn – stir or shake constantly, till nicely browned.  Remove from pan and let cool.  Do NOT wash skillet.

3-     Add toasted chilies, cornmeal, oregano, cumin, cocoa, dried cilantro,4 Chipotle peppers,  and ½ tsp salt to food processor.  Process until a finely ground powder. ( It will be a little like a paste from the wet chipotle peppers, this is fine)  While processor running on slow, slowly add ½ cup chicken broth until mixture is a fine paste.  Transfer to a small bowl.  Add onions, and Jalapeno peppers, and gently pulse until the consistency of a chunky salsa.



Simmer Sauce



4-     Heat 2 tbs olive oil in 6 quart stock pot over med high heat.  Add onion/pepper mixture, and sauté, stirring until liquid is cooked off, about 7 minutes.  Add garlic, and cook for additional minute or two.  Stir in chili paste, and cook until thoroughly combined.  Add remaining 2 ½ cups broth, tomatoes, drained beans, can of green chilies and bring to a boil – then reduce heat to med low and simmer.



5-     As sauce is simmering, in 12 or 16 inch sauté pan, heat 2 tbs olive oil over med high heat, and begin browning meat in batches that only cover the bottom.  Sear until brown on all sides, remove, and add about 1/8 bottle of beer to deglaze the pan.  Pour reduced beer into sauce.  Continue until all meat is browned, and about ½ bottle of beer is used up. ( a little more is fine- lol – the more the merrier!)  Add browned meat, lime zest and fresh cilantro to sauce, cover, and simmer for about 2 hours till meat is tender, and the smell is driving you crazy!

6-     Serve with lime wedges, shredded Mexican cheese mix, and Sour Cream….. This should be pretty spicy, but if you are like me, and want an added kick, add some red pepper flakes to your own portion.