Weeknight Chili

Here’s another rehash of an earlier published recipe. Why do I do this? I don’t know – to make things clearer?

WTF is “weeknight” chili? Some people will take all day/weekend to cook-up a pot of chili that’s worth eating. Here’s one that you can make after work – in about 90 minutes – and eat that night.

Chili in the pot. Mmm, that looks nice!

Chili
Makes ~1 gallon

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup (4 Tbs) Olive/Vegetable Oil*
• 2 Large Onions, diced
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 2 lbs Ground Beef*
• 2 cans (15 oz) Dark Red Kidney Beans, rinsed*
• 1 can (28 oz) Diced Tomatoes
• 1 can (28 oz) Tomato Puree (or crushed tomatoes)*
• 1/4 cup (4 Tbs) Chili Powder*
• 1 Tbs Cumin
• 2 tsp Ground Coriander
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• Salt

SUMMARY

• Cook the vegetables and spices for a few minutes. Then, in the same pot, brown the meat. Add tomatoes and beans and simmer for 60+ minutes. Eat.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large stock pot, heat the oil, over medium/high heat, until shimmering.
2. Add onions, red pepper, and spices*. Stir to combine and cook until tender – about 8 minutes.

Cooking the spices with the onions/peppers “blooms” them. Don’t worry if they stick to the bottom a bit – they’ll be deglazed later

3. Add beef, stir, and cook until beef has browned – about 8 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
5. Taste the chili after 30 minutes. Add salt (if needed – will likely be needed, but don’t go apeshit). Continue cooking, with the lid removed, for another 30-45 minutes. Stir occasionally/often.
6. Check the flavor – add more salt if needed. Otherwise, done. Turn-off the heat. You “may” eat now, but it’ll be better tomorrow.
7. Storage: wait until cooled and transfer into a fridge-safe container (I use quart-sized plastic containers). The last time I made this, I filled 3 containers – the remaining chili (one bowl’s worth) became my lunch. Nice. It’ll be good in the fridge for a week. You can move to the freezer whenever, but I recommend cooling in the fridge before moving to the freezer – cool things freeze better than hot.

SERVING NOTES

• Lately, we’ve been ladling this chili over some cooked macaroni noodles. I know it sounds like sacrilege, but it’s a fun way to stretch this into a satisfying carb-feast.
• If you’re not using noodles, try oyster crackers. If you’re against oysters, break-up some saltines.
• Don’t sleep on shredded cheese and sour cream. BUT, unlike my kids, DON’T mix the sour cream into the chili. You want the chili to bump-up against the cool white sour cream. Stirring them together just makes a lighter color chili – which is odd. Kids are stupid.

INGREDIENT NOTES

• Oil: At home, I use olive oil – which is great. But this recipe doesn’t NEED olive oil – any vegetable oil will work to saute onions and bell pepper.
• Beef: Use the 80% beef for chili. You can use 75% too – but I prefer 80. DON’T use the super-lean 90+% meats – those are a ground beef abomination. BTW, we’re talking about fat content: 80% beef means 20% fat.
• Beans: Dark red kidney beans have tougher skins than the light red beans and are preferred for chili. “Chili” beans, which look similar and also sold in cans, have beans + spices. Some people want the grocery store to do their cooking for them. Poor bastards!
• Puree/Crushed Tomatoes: Pureed tomatoes are smoother. We’re using the diced tomatoes for texture, but also need liquid tomatoes. Tomato sauce is too thin and uninteresting, thus puree. It can sometimes be difficult to find, so substitute crushed tomatoes and you’ll still have a winner. If you want to learn more about canned tomatoes (Um, yes!), red this.
• Chili Powder: “Chili” powder is a blend of spices you’d expect to need when making chili. The actual content and amounts depend on the manufacturer. Not the same as “chile” powder, which should be a powder created from a specific pepper (chile), but people use chili/chile interchangeably all the time for no reason. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia article that is confusing AF.

RECIPE FAQs

• Why cook the spices with the onions and peppers? Why not just add those later? >> Spices can take-on different characteristics depending on when they’re added. Cooking ground spices in oil “blooms” the spices, which is good. Check-out this third party verification:

There are two very good reasons for frying ground spices in oil, one chemical and the other physical. First, heating up the spices in oil releases fat-soluble flavor compounds contained within spices like cumin and coriander. Second, adding spices to cooking oil will distribute their flavor far more efficiently in the finished dish than either adding them to the liquid component or stirring them in at the end.

Pre-mix those spices. Don’t wait until the last minute to notice you’re out of coriander