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Now that I have 2 crock pots, I'm going to attempt to make a new homemade chili this weekend (and beyond). I'm hoping I can get it perfected by about the fifth batch.

Does anybody have "secret" ingredient suggestions that they use? I know I'm going to put some Yuengling in it, and I'll use some combination of cinnamon, honey, and brown sugar to sweeten it up. I can't eat beans so I substitute more meat and mushrooms in my chili for body. I'm planning on serving it Skyline style.


I loooooove Chili.

My secret:

Start with an aromic base: finely chopped carrots and celery along with diced onion and peppers.
Sweat all those out in some olive oil.

Add meat to brown.

Meat: the trifecta: ground meat, pork, and veal (1- 1.5 lb each)

Once meat is brown I add in either a cup or so of red wine or a half bottle of beer depending on my mood.

Cook the liquid off and then add two 28 cans Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes (this is when I add the bean either kidney or black).

Heat: Frank Red Hot and 3-4 ground Embasa Chipotle peppers in adabo sauce. I LOVE a smokey chili.

I would do all the cooking in a large pot then transfer to the crocks.

The above recipe got me first, second, and third place at our club's chili cook-off. True story.

Now, if you want to do a derivation of a traditional chili, get yourself a brisket, drown it in chile pepper, celery salt, and garlic powder and cook it fat side up and covered for about 5 hours at 200 degrees in a soup of a bottle of beer and a half dozen drops of liquid smoke. When it's done, pull the beast apart and throw it into your crock pots. Serve with corn bread.

1. Bottle of Franks Chile 'n Lime sauce
2. Couple shots of bourbon, (i like buffalo trace, but any variety will work).
3. I like RUIT's meat montage. I normally do beef and pork, but when going for a trifecta I use lamb instead of veal.

I'm a big fan of purple onions, and red, yellow or orange bell peppers. I think it adds some nice color to the chili. I also think the golden hominy is a nice substitution if you don't like beans.

Usually I buy crushed/chopped tomatoe that have green chilie peppers and chipotle peppers with them.

I will be bringing up a large pot of chili for homecoming.


On a related note, shall we attempt another chili cook-off this year.

j4h: Since you're not using beans, you might consider adding other vegetables. I've grown fond of adding corn to my chili.

Secret ingredients: Fresh cilantro and roasted garlic.

Rightupinthere wrote:My secret:..

I tackled a Deli owner once about his mild but mysteriously good chilli. His secret - dark chocolate, the more bitter, like the South American organic makes, the better. Just a few nuggets, did the trick, but probably wouldn't cut the mustard with more than a few chillis in the meltdown.

Zom wrote:

Rightupinthere wrote:My secret:..

I tackled a Deli owner once about his mild but mysteriously good chilli. His secret - dark chocolate, the more bitter, like the South American organic makes, the better. Just a few nuggets, did the trick, but probably wouldn't cut the mustard with more than a few chillis in the meltdown.

Chocolate goes well with any chili!

I'm sure chocolate [read: raw cacoa] would go VERY well with chili. You can make a pan reduction sauce with chocolate that is (I hear) killer with steak.

I haven't been able to experiment with that yet.

Thanks for the ideas everybody. I think I'll be able to experiment quite nicely with all of these suggestions

Beans have absolutely NO Place in chili.

PERIOD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne

hammb wrote:Beans have absolutely NO Place in chili.

PERIOD.

The the forward pass has no place in football.

Made the first attempt at the new chili recipe today. It's close. It was very good, but it could be better. I think I'm going to use RUIT chipotle peppers for some more kick. My chili was kind of weird because it wasn't extremely spicy while I was eating it, but my lips were burning for about a half hour afterwards. It definitely needs some more balls to it though.

I also would like it a bit thicker/smoother than it was. I think I'll try adding some cocoa in the next batch.

Once I get it perfected, I'll post the recipe.