Home Made Chili!

[RoadKingLarry]

In the crock pot I have chili.
All of the ingredients except a few spices and salt I harvest off of my land
Home canned Chili base made with tomatoes, onions and peppers that came from my garden. Pinto beans that came from my garden and venison from a deer I killed on my land.
Does it get any better than that??

[41magsnub]

Sounds good.   Funnily enough I did the exact same thing yesterday except for the garden and my land part, still venison I killed though!

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

you cube the venison? or grind it?

[RoadKingLarry]

This batch is with ground. Time constraints. I spent far too much of today doing a poor imitation of a plumber.

[BridgeRunner]

Nice.  A friend is giving me some ground ven this year.  Somehow between the baby and the bar, not to mention lack of decent rifle, learning to hunt has been postponed for yet another year.  I've got some ground chuck in the fridge that will be chili, though.  Gotta soak the bean first.  I'm lazy though, and even use canned tomatoes and pre-ground chipotle in addition to my store-bought peppers.

[Chuck Dye]

Beans?  

BEANS!!!!

There're no beans in chili!

If you are exploring the possibilities, try some chile morita in your blend.  Tread lightly at first, moritas can be a bit.....warming.

While I like pintos well enough as a side dish to chili, I prefer Anasazis (like a sweeter, less gassy pinto) or bolitas (look like small white beans with a suntan, richer, nuttier, much as Jarlsberg compares to Swiss cheese,) both of which I used to buy from Adobe Milling Co. of Dove Creek CO (back when it was on highway US-666) and now find at roadside stands and farmers' markets in California.  Both work very well for heretics who put beans into their chili.

[Physics]

I made my first batch of crockpot beef stew last night.  Awesome-ness.    I ate it all day today.

[Scout26]

So, what time is dinner ??

[280plus]

^^^ 

Try a little basalmic vinegar in there some time. I tried some at a chili cookoff once and have been hooked ever since. Just a couple tablespoons.

[Jamisjockey]

Excellent!

Here's my red chili receipe:

1 pound of stew meat, uncooked
1 pound of ground hamburger, or preferably "meatloaf mix", cooked
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of black beans
2 packets of McCormick's chili powder mix
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoe sauce
1 tsp garlic (minced or powdered)
1 tsp onion powder.

Wife likes it mild.  If you want it to be more entertaining, add between 1tsp-1tbsp of hot sauce, and 1tsp to 1tbsp of red pepper flakes.  1 cup of cooked diced onions would be a winner, too. 

Marinate the stew meat cubes in beer for NO MORE THAN 30 minutes.  Put the whole thing in a crock pot.  Cook for 4 hours on high.  mmmmmm

[HankB]

Beans? 

BEANS!!!!

There're no beans in chili!

Amen!

Just for educational purposes:

• The main differences between Texas chili recipes and those other chili recipes is that "real" Texas chili has no beans and the main ingredient, after the meat, is chili peppers - whether chopped, diced, powdered, or liquified. Oh, and Texas chili just tastes better.
• As I hope we all know, chili was invented in San Antonio, Texas, about the middle of the Nineteenth Century. It began as a simple peasant stew using materials inexpensive and at hand. Meat, chile peppers, comino, oregano and garlic made up the first recipes. All the spices except the comino grow wild in South Texas. The comino was imported from the Canary Islands by settlers in San Antonio in the 1700's.
  

http://www.g6csy.net/chile/recp-texas.html

[grislyatoms]

FWIW, I like to add some bite-size chunks of pork or lamb to chili. Adds great texture and flavor. I use lamb rarely, though, as it’s pretty expensive and I prefer it prepared simply, either all by itself or in Irish stew.

Not much better for dinner on a cold night than a fiery-hot bowl of chili.

[Gewehr98]

I go buy one each box of Carroll Shelby's Texas Chili Fixin's, and use that as a starter.

I'll be doing the venison chili thing later this week, especially if we get the 12" of snow they're predicting tomorrow night.   

[mtnbkr]

I go buy one each box of Carroll Shelby's Texas Chili Fixin's, and use that as a starter.

I use that one as well as another mix that's just one pouch.  In either case, I add all sorts of other spices and stuff to make it what I want.

I've found that the best chili (for me and my family) comes from using a CS Tex Chili Fixin's "kit" along with a can or two of Rotel tomatoes and peppers, extra cumin, extra Chili powder, and Lucks Brand pinto beans flavored with pork.  Something about those beans gives the chili a wonderful flavor and excellent "mouth feel".  Once I discovered that, I wouldn't use any other beans (and I'm not picky about canned pintos for other uses).

Yeah yeah, I know chili doesn't have beans, but if you're eating chili at our house, it's gonna have beans.  If you can't handle that, your more than welcome to eat a bologna sammich on white bread with mayo. :D

Chris

[Jamisjockey]

Yeah yeah, I know chili doesn't have beans, but if you're eating chili at our house, it's gonna have beans.  If you can't handle that, your more than welcome to eat a bologna sammich on white bread with mayo. :D

Chris

QFT!  My chili is simple, but everyone that eats it seems to love it!  I've also been known to throw in a can of sweet corn, too...

[Gewehr98]

Watched the chili cookoff on Food Network over the weekend.

They were gushing over something called "Texas Red", and it was this broth of uniformly-cubed meat in red sauce.

Eww. I saw no beans, no chunks of onions or peppers, and they all looked the same.  

Even the judge interviewed said 19 out of 20 submissions were like each other, with one standing out.  

[grislyatoms]

They were gushing over something called "Texas Red", and it was this broth of uniformly-cubed meat in red sauce.

Sounds like carne adovada. Extremely popular dish in these parts; I find it much too bland.

LOL, now I'm going to have to make chili tonight.

[mtnbkr]

Eww. I saw no beans, no chunks of onions or peppers, and they all looked the same. 

Oh yeah, forgot the onions and peppers (bell, banana, anaheim, and jalapeno).  We add those in bulk for texture and flavor.

I'm not fond of chili with cubed meat though.  To me, chili should be a fairly smooth consistency with the few "lumps" being small and soft. I even try to make sure the ground meat is broken up into small clumps as much as possible.

QFT!  My chili is simple, but everyone that eats it seems to love it!  I've also been known to throw in a can of sweet corn, too...

I've had chili with corn in it.  It's good, though I always forget to add it to my own at home.

When I make chili, the predominate "theme" is spicy warmth, earthiness, and the richness of the meat and beans.  It's spicy, but not so hot you can't enjoy it.  I prefer no one ingredient overpower another. 

Chris

[Chrissy]

The b/f and I just made chili this past weekend.  He's the expert so I'm not exactly sure of how much of each ingredient was put in, but  he uses Sweet onions, kidney beans, stewed tomatoes, ketchup, and we put in cubes of chicken breast and PINEAPPLE!!  Yum!!  :-)

[AZRedhawk44]

ketchup? 

Lol...

I do homemade chili a couple times a year.  It's raining right now.  Chili sounds good but it's too late in the day to start it.

[BridgeRunner]

See, maybe in Texas "peasant food" is just meat with a little vegetable, but up here in bean country, meat is expensive. 

Chili is what I make when I can't afford to go grocery shopping, although when we're really broke I use all chili powder.

When we're not totally broke, merely cheap, it's dried beans, soaked in water and a little yogurt to break down the fun enzyme action a little, jalapenos and some chipotle powder, some chopped bell pepper, an onion, canned diced tomatoes, fresh garlic, and ground chuck.  Sometimes some tomato paste, but I like to keep the acidity down with less tomato. 

[Brad Johnson]

Pinto beans that came from my garden

Folks been know'd ta disappear for less treasonous offenses... 

Brad

[Jamisjockey]

See, maybe in Texas "peasant food" is just meat with a little vegetable, but up here in bean country, meat is expensive. 

Chili is what I make when I can't afford to go grocery shopping, although when we're really broke I use all chili powder.

When we're not totally broke, merely cheap, it's dried beans, soaked in water and a little yogurt to break down the fun enzyme action a little, jalapenos and some chipotle powder, some chopped bell pepper, an onion, canned diced tomatoes, fresh garlic, and ground chuck.  Sometimes some tomato paste, but I like to keep the acidity down with less tomato. 

Around here, meat from the grocery store is like a same-sex conjugual prision trip. 
Hence, the stew meat, it's typically cheaper than even chuck steak by 1/2 or more.  I can make my chili for about $10.
The secret to using any cheap meat is a 20-30 minute bath in a beer.  Cheap beer works best, a miller light or BL.

[BridgeRunner]

Around here, meat from the grocery store is like a same-sex conjugual prision trip. 
Hence, the stew meat, it's typically cheaper than even chuck steak by 1/2 or more.  I can make my chili for about $10.
The secret to using any cheap meat is a 20-30 minute bath in a beer.  Cheap beer works best, a miller light or BL.

i've never trusted anyone else to cut stew meat for me.  I'm just picky about how its cut, and pre-packaged stew meat is just a handy way for them to give me really badly cut stuff. 
I know good stuff can come of stew meat, because I've eaten it in other people's homes, I just can't quite bring myself to do it.

Surely Costco is not that bad for meat prices?  When we were closer than sixty miles to Costco we got just about all of our meat there.

[Jamisjockey]

Yep, I get all my ground beef and chicken at costco, but everything else comes in quantities beyond what we need and I'm too lazy to seperate and refreeze....