My Texas Chili

EricC

Member
Last fall there was some chili talk and I said I'd post mine next time I did a batch. Well, a few weeks ago I did a batch, so now I'm posting...

Because of the tomato content and long cook time, I used a 12 QT SS pot for the actual chili. But I used my #10 BSR to brown all the meat, sauté all the fresh peppers and onion, and make the roux.

Meat, beef is the obvious choice and I love beef, but past experimentation has taught me that turkey actually makes a pretty mean chili. The problem with turkey is it's always regular ground, not the preferred-for-chili coarse ground. So this time I included both, coarse ground beef and regular ground turkey, about 4 lbs of each browned in three batches...


I never use chili powder, instead I used dried ancho peppers. Down here in Texas I have a wide variety of dried peppers available and in the past I've used a combination of several of them, but ancho is the best (BTW the ancho pepper is the dried version of the poblano pepper). I also prefer to include authentic dried chipotle peppers (dried and smoked version of red jalapeños) when I can find them. When I can't, the canned version in adobo sauce (sauce rinsed off and seeded) serves but is very inferior.

They're much easier to stem and seed while still dry, then soak in hot water to rehydrate while doing other prep. Then both the peppers and the soaking water go into the blender along with a few cloves of fresh garlic and pureed smooth.




For my fresh pepper blend, this time I chose poblano, hatch, green bell, and red bell peppers. Usually I do a 1" dice but this time I did a small dice. Along with some Texas sweet onion, they get sautéed until they're a bit caramelized before being added.




(cont'd in next post)
 
Starting to come together (the focus slipped by me on this one)...


At this point I put in the tomatoes. Typically I'll use tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, and fresh diced tomatoes. This time I was being lazy and just used tomato sauce and canned diced tomatoes. I'll also add my spice blend at this point, which I'd rather not detail but I'll say it includes cumin and paprika. All mixed up and left to simmer for a few hours.


Finally, it's time for the roux. For chili I use masa corn flour, it gives it a flavorful hearty body. Cooked until toasty dark, then added to the chili and simmered for an hour or two more.




That left me with a nice, thick, hearty chili. You may notice it lacks beans. That's because this is Texas.


As a post-script, at this point it was time to evaluate the results and make adjustments. I ended up getting "sciencey" and tried a couple of things I've never put in chili before; they may seem blasphemous but they actually worked.

At first taste I felt there was a bit too much tomato flavor, I wasn't trying to make a ragù... So I put in some baking soda. It bubbled a bit but when it died down it had cut down the tomato's acidity just right, no longer had a distinct tomato taste.

Then the heat - I like a good spicy chili but my audience for this batch included a bunch of Northerners and I didn't want them put off. Well, capsaicin bonds with dairy products so I put in some heavy cream. Not enough to be noticeable, but just enough to take the edge off.

I was left with a chili that was meaty and flavorful but the heat was only noticed as an aftertaste. Really, I was quite surprised with how good it was, I'd even call it excellent; I've put more effort in chili before that turned out not as good. And thankfully, it proved to be quite popular; there were no leftovers.
 
Looks very good. My turkey chili is far less ambitious. The color of the meat after browning isn't very brown, so I drain it and color it up with some Kitchen Bouquet.
 
That does look good. I had never heard of making a roux for chili so I learned something new. Of course here beans would be added. Great tutorial, EricC.
 
Really nice photos and directions! Thank you from Texas!

Honestly, I think this resistance to tomatoes in cast iron is a tad overblown. I don't do it myself, because I have now read so much on the subject, especially here, but my parents occasionally cooked dishes which, if not exactly tomato- based, certainly included tomatoes. Fish stews come to mind. No one complained.

We can also be sure that people in the past may have had nothing but cast iron in their kitchens, and they weren't going to omit tomatoes if they had them and the recipe called for it.
 
Well, Eric, I grew up in Texas, but I learned some new chili tricks from your description! And thanks for including the pictures .

BTW, the hot-handle cover on your CI--is it leather?
 
Thanks for the comments everybody, I appreciate them.

Re: tomatoes in CI, unfortunately my avoidance is due to experience instead of hearsay. I used to be indifferent about what I cooked in CI and got away with cooking with tomatoes many times, but then I had a couple of occasions where the seasoning got damaged. So I don't do it any more, it's just not worth it. The amount of tomatoes and duration of exposure increases the risk.

Re: handle covers, yes, they're leather. Not perfect but I've been satisfied with them. There was a little discussion about them on pgs 1 & 2 of this thread:
http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4087
 
Nice chili! Smoked brisket and pork rib tips chopped up are my go to meats when making chili. Major props for using dried chili instead of store bought powder. thanks for sharing.
 
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