Recipies

Chili Recipe

Here you’ll find my classic meat chili recipe. It is a two day process to make this recipe, but boy is it worth it!

Ingredients List

Fresh Ingredients

  • 2lbs. Lean Ground Beef
  • 2 Habanero Peppers
  • One each of Red, Green and Yellow Bell Peppers
  • One White Onion
  • 4 Celery Stalks
  • 2 cloves of Garlic

Canned Ingredients

  • 2 cans Red Kidney Beans
  • 2 cans Chili Beans
  • 2 cans Chili Style Diced Tomatoes
  • 2 cans Diced Green Chiles
  • 1 large can of Tomato Paste (I’ll get the size posted here soon)

Dry Spices

  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • Tabasco® Sauce (I use the Habanero Sauce for my recipe)
  • Ground Coriander
  • Ground Cumin
  • Chili Powder
  • Two packets of hot taco meat seasoning

Preparation

The Day Before

You’ll need two pots for this: one for the meat/spices and one for the fresh ingredients. I use a 3qt. sauté pan for preparing the meat and a 6qt. stock pot for the fresh ingredients.

Start with the fresh ingredients, they will take the longest to cook. When preparing the habanero peppers always wear latex gloves and protective eyewear! I quarter the peppers and dispose of the seeds (while I could handle it, my wife thinks that my chili is to hot the way I make it now!), and thinly slice up the habanero quarters. I try and get them to be about 1mm thickness. I also like to de-seed and finely dice the bell peppers as well. For the celery, I try to slice them to about 3-5mm in thickness. Mince the garlic (I actually use the stuff that’s comes already minced in the jar). Dice up the onion and toss it in there as well. Let this combination cook in the stock pot for about 15 minutes before starting the meat.

Brown the meat and prepare according to the directions on the taco meat seasoning packets. To the meat you'll add the rest of the dry spices after it is done cooking. For a rule of thumb, I tend to spice it until a sample turns my lips numb on contact. Don’t worry, diluting it in the remainder of the chili will tone it down quite a bit.

Once the meat is spiced to your satisfaction, mix it in with the vegetables and let it simmer until the vegetables soften up. Once this step is done you put it into a container for storage in the refrigerator overnight (I have a 4qt. container for this).

Chili Day!

For this step you’ll want a 10qt. stock pot to make your delicious chili. Today is the easy day — just open and dump cans into the stock pot, add the meat & vegetable mixture and heat it up! I like to slow cook on very low heat for 2 hours before serving.