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Chili w/o beans


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  • 3 weeks later...

We're home for one day today after camping in Fredericksburg on my BIL's property for Christmas, but before going back out camping with a big group of friends in Georgetown for the next week.  So I'm making a big batch of Texas Red whilst watching the Cowboys game, with intent to consume on New Year's Day, watching the Horns beat the hell out of ASU,  when it should be nice and chilly all day.

Thinking back over some discussion a few pages back about the steeping water being bitter, which has never been my experience, and I realized that something I always do but don't really think about-- I always stem and de-seed the dried chile peppers before they go into the oven for toasting, and thus before the chiles go into the steeping water.  Another point is, I don't ever boil the dried chile peppers, just use hot water.  I think either of those things, either steeping with the seeds and veins and stems in, or boiling the peppers, can result in bitter water.  But as it is, if anything my steeping water always turns out a little sweet, most likely from the anchos in the blend.

Anyway, just something I thought about as I was doing it and thought I'd post it up here in case it might help someone, when doing the rehydrated chile method.

 

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On 6/24/2018 at 12:20 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Probably my best ever:  an attempt to get close to the original San Antonio Chili Queens recipe.  I used less onion and more chile peppers & cumin, but the result was stellar.  I'd say the heat was "medium".  No tomatoes, no stock, mostly just beef & pork, chile peppers, spices and water.

Chili_Queen_Chili.jpg

 

2 lb    beef chuck (cubed ~ 1/2")
1 lb    pork loin (cubed ~ 1/2")
8        dried guajillo peppers
8        dried ancho peppers
4        dried chipotle peppers
3        cloves garlic 
1        medium sweet onion 
1 t     Mexican oregano
2 T    cumin seeds
2 t     paprika
1 T    salt 
8 c    water
3 T    extra virgin olive oil
3 T    masa harina

1.       stem & seed ancho, guajillo and chipotle peppers.  Soak in 4c hot water for 20 minutes.  Discard steeping water.

2.       Toast cumin seeds until fragrant; grind to medium powder

3.       Combine cumin with oregano, paprika and salt

4.       Heat 4 c water until warm and add to blender with drained peppers and half of spice blend

5.       Blend pepper/water/spice combination with 1 T olive oil until very smooth

6.       Dice onion medium fine; saute in 2 T olive oil until slightly translucent over medium heat in large Dutch oven

7.       Mince garlic and set aside

8.       Dice beef & pork to ~ ½” cubes, add to Dutch oven, season with remaining spice blend and saute until lightly browned

9.       Add garlic to Dutch oven for ~ 30 seconds, do not burn

10.    Immediately add pepper/water/spice puree to Dutch oven and reduce to low

11.    Simmer for 2-3 hours, adding water as necessary.  Add masa harina before serving to tighten.

I used this recipe as my base for chili I made last night. My changes were using a few more guallijo and ancho peppers, subbed arbol for chipotle (used what I had), added two crushed chicken bouillon cubes, three chopped serrano peppers and 16 oz of chopped tomatoes. 

That was the best chili I have ever tasted. Well done. 

I have British in-laws in town and a smart ass teenage son, and they were attempting to add beans and then I see my wife cooking rice. I refused the beans, of course, and convinced my FIL to try it on its own. My son never had any intentions of using beans, just irritating me for his own humor. My MIL still used her own cooked beans. 

Anywho, every adult, except for me, and my teenage son and daughter had complete seconds and my MIL skipped the beans the second time. It was a complete wipeout, with nothing for leftovers. 

 

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4 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I used this recipe as my base for chili I made last night. My changes were using a few more guallijo and ancho peppers,

I've slowly moved to more guajillo than ancho (by pepper count), which gets pretty close to equal weight of each type.  Anchos weigh ~ 2.5X what guajillos weigh, and to me things taste a little too "raisin-y" when I use (for instance) 8 of each pepper.  Try something more like 12 guajillo and 6 ancho and let me know what you think.

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Recently I have done 2x what I consider "fast" chili.

3 pounds ground 1 pound bfast sausage (used oryx last time as I have it on hand).  Previously I did ground/chili grind/pork/bfast sausage 1# each.

2 boxes of Carrol Shelby mix (use the cayenne for hotness), that's my initial spice dump.  Can of tomato sauce and beer/stock/water/whatever.  Simmer for 30-60 min.  Then add a bunch of garlic and onion powders with gerhardt for the second dump, simmer some more.  30 minutes before serving dump a bunch of cumin and cayenne.

 

It's not as deep as doing the slurry but you can be eating very good chili less than 2 hours.

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Game night batch is on.  Half 80/20 ground chuck, half prime sirloin, went with rehydrated ancho, guajillo, pasilla (new for me) and chipotle peppers along with a big ole diced jalapeno.  Will add cayenne if it's not hot enough.  Onions, garlic, a few Roma tomatoes, pretty chunky stuff.  The usual spices.  Waiting until 6 PM is gonna test my patience.  Fuck Ohio State.

image.png.db94c3d6e6fa7bd8a19aea4c7a56e9f4.png

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On 1/10/2025 at 4:28 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Game night batch is on.  Half 80/20 ground chuck, half prime sirloin, went with rehydrated ancho, guajillo, pasilla (new for me) and chipotle peppers along with a big ole diced jalapeno.  Will add cayenne if it's not hot enough.  Onions, garlic, a few Roma tomatoes, pretty chunky stuff.  The usual spices.  Waiting until 6 PM is gonna test my patience.  Fuck Ohio State.

 

Well, that was mildly fantastic.  Key word "mild", but I was not wanting to blow my guests' heads off.  Super tasty.  My new base recipe.

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11 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, that was mildly fantastic.  Key word "mild", but I was not wanting to blow my guests' heads off.  Super tasty.  My new base recipe.

What's your pepper ratio? 

Are you using canned chipotles?

Would you increase the heat with a arbols, fresh peppers, and/or cayenne?

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1 hour ago, Jerry Callo said:

What's your pepper ratio? 

Are you using canned chipotles?

Would you increase the heat with a arbols, fresh peppers, and/or cayenne?

I had about 2.4 lb beef (roughly 50/50 ground chuck and diced sirloin steak), so I used 8 guajillos, 3 anchos, 2 pasillas, 2 dried chipotles and 1 large fresh jalapeno.  I'd probably throw in a couple of arbols first.

I should add that I seasoned the steak with my standard "house" rub, which is equal parts kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.  I was just trying to build depth of flavor.  The chili itself had the usual -- salt, cumin, Mexican oregano, onion, garlic, tomato (yeah I know, this isn't a Texas chili per se and I like tomato).

Edited by jimmyjazz
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@jimmyjazz, I used your page 1 recipe as a base and tripled it for a parish potluck and it slammed. I did use ground chuck and pork because I didn’t have the energy to cube that much meat to feed other people. I also made pans of cornbread and a pot of charro beans for the schismatics to do what they would with them. Plus, I can go for beans on the side of chili. Just not cooked in the chili.

I will add a few arbols next time when making it just for me. 

Edited by 956 Worldwide
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Hell yes, it was ON today.  Perfect chili weather.  For this one I kept @jimmyjazz’ ratios but played with the blend: anchos, guajillos, puyas, chile de arbol, and a few canned chipotles in adobo.  And a can of beer to top off instead of more water.  Served with cheddar cheese cornbread. The kids said it’s the best pot I’ve made, I might could use a bit more heat but am content as long as they are slurping down bowls and asking to save some for their thermoses for lunch at school. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.9c89b53b6d98066b04bb8208358d3adc.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.9c060278be9ca3f7cb00b8db3ae229b9.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.4878c1512d70e367790039ab634541be.jpeg

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Pretty simple recipe and similar to many I've seen. 4 lbs of chuck roast, variety of dried chiles...New Mexico, Guajillo, Ancho, and Pasilla in this case, large onion, sixish garlic cloves, chicken or beef stock, Poblano/Serrano/Jalapeno or whatever other fresh chile you like, salt, black pepper, cumin...whatever other spices you want to throw in.

Remove seeds from the dried chiles, lightly toast them in the pot or pan without burning, bring some water or stock to a boil, turn off the heat and add the chiles to rehydrate for 20 minutes. Once rehydrated, add to a blender with 4 cups of chicken or beef stock and blend until smooth. The chile skins really ruin the texture imo so make sure they are blended thoroughly unless you like that sort of thing.

Cube the steak and season with salt and pepper. Add some oil to the pot and brown on two sides, half of the total amount at a time. I've also done the whole piece at once and then cubed after it was browned. Remove from the pot.

Dice the onions and garlic, add more oil and saute for 5-10 mins. Add the cumin and other seasonings of your choice. Poblanos can also be diced up and added here. I roasted mine, peeled, removed the seeds, diced up and added in the next step with the meat.

Add back the meat, blended chiles, fresh chiles and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for 3-4 hours. Season to taste throughout. Add masa harina to thicken if needed.

 

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32 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

I’ve found that my chili doesn’t taste done without the masa harina, even if it’s thick enough. Just that hint of fresh ground corn in the bowl rounds out the whole thing. 

I'm the opposite, I actually intensely dislike the flavor of masa in chili, totally ruins the bowl for me.  When using the rehydrated chile method, the chile skins themselves provide tons of thickening, which is another reason I prefer the rehydrated chile method to using powders.

 

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5 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Need some pepper advice. Have ancho, guajillo, chipotle, and arbol. Chipotles are dried which I haven’t really used. Usually I stick to around that 2:2:1 ish.

lol literally two posts up. My bad team.

heavy guajillo if you want red, ancho and chipotle will both darken it. arbol (and cayenne bloomed in some oil) for heat because guajillo just aren't hot.

Edited by elfenix
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11 hours ago, Wiler77 said:

I've never done the dried chile thing. Is there a downside to cutting the stems off, grinding them, and adding to the pot vs the rehydrate method?

If you have something that would reduce them to powder, guess you could. But going to be hard to avoid any chunks I would think. 
 

rehydrating is so damn easy, not sure why you wouldn’t just do it though. 

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13 hours ago, elfenix said:

heavy guajillo if you want red, ancho and chipotle will both darken it.

Depends on the chipotle.  Chiptle morita is dark, chipotle meco isn't.  (I've never done a taste test, I just buy whatever.)

Morita:

image.png.8d207b8de106fa1b0fed357f3a2e48ab.png

Meco:

image.png.5c702097ccda0bb88d0bc8cb5177ce6a.png

Edited by jimmyjazz
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9 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Depends on the chipotle.  Chiptle morita is dark, chipotle meco isn't.  (I've never done a taste test, I just buy whatever.)

Morita:

image.png.8d207b8de106fa1b0fed357f3a2e48ab.png

Meco:

image.png.5c702097ccda0bb88d0bc8cb5177ce6a.png

apparently the grocery store i'm going to in the east end of houston isn't mexican enough

Edited by elfenix
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