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Last Summer Chili Grillin’ Mistakes

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    Last Summer Chili Grillin’ Mistakes

    I can’t get up and grill right now on this bad wheel (floating on Percocet doesn’t facilitate grilling unfortunately), so thought I’d share a big learning experience for me from last summer. The chili ended up delicious (to me and my family), but it could have been even better. I guess the good news is I’ve learned so much since then from everyone here that I don’t have to make so many mistakes on my next try! I picked what I liked out of a few different Weber recipes and rolled with it, so with that being said...

    Gear:
    Weber 22” kettle
    KBB
    Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrel wood chips
    Weber Gourmet BBQ system Wok

    Ingredients:
    2 top sirloin steaks ~2.25lbs cubed in 3/4" pieces and seasoned in chili powder and paprika
    1 onion diced
    4 strips bacon cut up (could use 50% more)
    4 cloves garlic chopped
    6 hatch chiles cleaned and chopped (could use 50% more)
    1/2 bag frozen corn
    Lightly coat all of the above in oil
    8oz can tomato sauce
    8oz beer
    16oz water
    1 package Carol Shelby’s chili kit: ground chili peppers, salt, garlic, cumin, oregano, onion, paprika, cayenne
    1/2 can pinto beans (begrudgingly)

    I let the coals get hot and preheated the wok. When placing the wok in make sure the handles aren’t blocking the flippable grill grate. 😬

    I cooked the steak, 1/2 at a time, for 5 min covered stirring once. This left a lot of liquid in the wok which threw off the rest of my plans. I did not get a good browning on the steak. Next time I’d sear it first, then slice it when I was ready to simmer. I did use this liquid instead of the beef broth which you can see in one of the pics but isn’t listed as an ingredient.

    Next I got the bacon going, then added the onions. I let these go covered for 6 min stirring once til the onions started to brown. Then I added the corn, garlic and chiles. I mixed it well and tried keeping everything on the sides up out of the liquid and let this go covered a few minutes. I just didn’t get the browning I wanted - big fail. Next time I wouldn’t do everything covered up to this point as instructed, I think I’d have a hotter fire and more evaporation uncovered. I was steaming it too much, but went with the recipes thinking I’d get more smokey flavor if it was covered. Now I believe the smokey flavor is imparted during the simmer.

    At at this point I added the tomato sauce, water, beer and spices to the liquid that had collected, and mixed that up well. Then added the steak back in and mixed everything up real good. The wood chips went on and I closed it up to simmer for 45 min at around 300-350F. Halfway thru I added the beans and stirred. I didn’t feel I needed any masa flour at the end so skipped it. It really was delicious, I’d just change a few of the things I mentioned and should have better luck with the Maillard reaction. Really anxious to try this with a Chuckie or leftover brisket as I see so many people do here. Oh I think I’d also leave the fuel directly under the wok instead of pulling the baskets out to the sides as Weber said to do. Anyway... maybe someone can learn from my mistakes, here’s to yummy fails and the "next time!" 🍻

    Attached Files

    #2
    Looks like some dang good chili from here, here's to our mistakes

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      #3
      Looks like a winner to me.

      Comment


        #4
        Fantastic!

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          #5
          I would eat that. Looks great.

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            #6
            Some of us were born to make mistakes and bump into furniture for the good of the village! I guess it's some kind of "noble" calling, or at least I'll make like it is.

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