Chili

As a disclaimer... I'm a Texan - born and bred. However, I do use beans in my chili *gasp*. It may seem wrong to some other Texans out there, but it is what it is.


Ingredients:

Oil
1/2 - 1 Onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 - 2 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons (approx) paprika
1 tablespoon (approx) ground cumin
1 lb (approx) ground beef
1 12 oz bottle Shiner Bock Beer
1 can Ro*tel diced tomatoes & green chilis
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Ranch Style Beans
1 can black beans
salt to taste (probably 4-5 pinches of coarse kosher salt)


Method:

In oil sautee onion until softened and starting to brown (over med-med high heat). Add pressed (or minced) garlic and saute until fragrant Add flour and cook for just a minute or so, then add chili powder, paprika and cumin and continuously stir and scrape the bottom and sides (all the while taking on and off heat and adding more oil as necessary to keep from burning). Next, add the ground beef and begin stirring and cooking it, while adding a little bit of beer every once in a while to begin deglazing the bottom of the pot. After several minutes, add the rest of the beer, Ro*tel, tomatoes, and both cans of beans. Bring to simmer then reduce heat and begin to add salt 2 large pinches at a time thoroughly stirring and tasting in between additions to get the salt content right. Simmer for at least 30 minutes (or as long as you have until dinner time).


As this recipe stands, it is a nice mild amount of heat (in this Texan's opinion). Hey, my kids like it, so it's not too hot, right? But the nice thing about chili is that it's easy to adjust the heat. For more heat, use the Extra Hot Ro*Tel and Ranch Style Beans with Jalapenos. For less heat, use the milder Ro*Tel or just plain diced tomatoes as a substitute.

If you live outside of Texas and can't get your hands on some of these ingredients, I've been there and I feel your pain. Here are some suggestions:

If you can't get Ranch Style Beans, Bush's makes a decent chili bean to serve as a starting point. Just add some extra chili powder. Or you could make your own.

Ro*Tel or similar products are fairly widely available these days, I think.

Shiner Bock, however is sometimes a little bit harder to come by. I'm not going to say that just any ol' beer will do, because I just don't know. For a non-beer alternative you could use beef stock