Thursday, February 5, 2009

JW Super Bowl Chili

There are 1000's of chili recipes out there, but for sporting events and cook-off purposes, I can't sway from Chili con Carne. No beans. If you want those I suggest cooking a few pounds of pintos for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker with an onion and a few pieces of bacon...but I digress...

If you want to try my method, be forewarned, it will take you a few hours. I suggest you begin by sharpening your best chef knife to a razor's edge. This will make your prep much easier.

Hardware:
Chili pot, mine is a Le Cruset 8 qt Dutch Oven
Stainless steel skillet or cast-iron
Chef's knife
Spice grinder (coffee grinder that you will never use to grind coffee)

Ingredients:
2-chuck eye roasts to equal 4 or 5 lbs, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 to 4 types of dried chili, 3 to 4 of each
3T cumin seeds
1 T oregano
1/2 lb bacon or if feeling spunky Mexican chorizo, cut into lardons
1 medium onion, chopped
1-8 oz can tomato sauce (I use El Pato spicy Mexican Tomato sauce for chili)
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 jalepenos, minced
2 limes
Masa Harina
Salt & Pepper
Water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and toast cumin and chiles for about 6 minutes. Cook briefly, deseed, then grind in spice grinder. Meanwhile render the lardons over medium heat in your chili pot. Remove about 1/2 of the bacon grease to use for browning your meat, leave the remainder in the pot to cook the onions.

In your skillet, heat 1 T of pork fat over medium-high heat and add meat in a single layer being careful not to crowd so the meat will brown, not steam (gray meat isn't very appetizing to me), about 3 minutes per side. After each addition of meat, wipe the pan clean and repeat until all the meat is brown. Set aside.

After softening the onion, about 7 minutes, add the garlic and jalepeno and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Then add the chile and cumin and cook stirring well for about 2 minutes. Then add the tomato sauce, meat & about 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. It will be thin...cool and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, bring back to a boil and plan to simmer for about an hour. Taste adding salt and pepper as needed. 5 minutes before serving, juice the limes and mix about 5 T of masa in with the lime juice. Add the lime/masa mixture to the chili and the chili will thicken almost immediately.

Serve in bowls garnished with chopped onion, minced serrano, cheese, and Ole Mexican Crema.

1 comment:

MAB said...

I love me some JW chili. I'm gonna have to try this one.