Time for Chili

[ecowper]

Yep, that time of year Bones!

[Steve B]

Beans???? Hell no.

[Mr. Bones]

Brother, that sounds like some Epic chili!!!!
Hopin' to make my first seasonal batch in th' next day, or two! (Got maters an peppers, out da wazoo!!!!)

[ecowper]

CaptainMike smoking the meat just takes the chili to a whole different level. If you don’t love it, I will eat my hat.

[CaptainMike]

I'm so doing that next week. Gawd I love this forum!

[ecowper]

Everything is on the Hasty-Bake and cooking. Onion will be good in another 20 minutes, or so.

[ecowper]

Here’s my chili recipe. It’s not very precise. And you can add to it or take away from it as you please.

This will be doubled. I normally would do a single 3 lb chuck roast, but I have that brisket flat to use up.

3 lbs (give or take0 chuck roast
1 large onion
1/2 lb of bacon, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
3 TBSP chili powder
1 TBSP cumin powder
1 can diced tomatoes
juice from 2-3 limes
1 ounce dark chocolate
1 cup decent red wine or a bottle of Shiner Bock
Beef stock

Smoke the chuck roast and onion
Cut the chuck into roughly 1” cubes. Remove the excessive fat
I use an enameled Dutch oven for this, but cast iron would be great too. Or stainless steel. Whatever
Cook the bacon until the fat renders and it’s a bit crunchy
Brown the chuck in the bacon fat. You may need to add some olive oil
Reserve the chuck meat
Roughly chop your onion and cook in the bacon fat/beef fat until wilted
add garlic, cook until aromatic, 2-3 minutes
add chili powder and cumin, cook for about 1 minute
add wine or beer and scrape browned bits of meat, etc off the bottom of the pot
add the meat, diced tomatoes, lime juice, chocolate and enough stock to raise the liquid to cover the meat.

Now simmer until the meat is tender. Add salt and pepper if you think it needs some. I like to throw in chopped up carrots and bell peppers about 10 minutes before serving. If it isn’t thick enough, crush up 10-15 tortilla chips and stir into the chili, then cook a bit longer.

If you like, serve over rice. Or plain. Have some good crusty bread on hand to eat with it. A big red wine, a Cabernet, or some Shiner Bock goes great with it.

​​​​​​​Enjoy

[ecowper]

I don’t normally put beans in my chili. Next time I set the Hasty-Bake up for smoking, I’ll take a picture for you.

[RonB]

In Texas, putting beans in chili is a hangin' offence - so I've heard.

[TheCountofQ]

Would love to see your fire box set up. The relation of lit coals placement to unlit. Hoe about beans? Are you a beanless chili kind of guy?

[ecowper]

Dug around in the freezer the other day. I found about 2.5 lbs of flat that I saved after cutting up a brisket for pastrami. And I found about 3 lbs of chuck roast. They’ve been dry brined for a couple hours, put some BBBR on them. Fired up the Hasty-Bake so I can smoke them. 40 lit briquettes, 80 unlit, plus a nice chunk of oak. Going to smoke the meat to about 165. Plus smoke an onion. Then use all that to make the chili.

First chili this fall.