If tongue-scorching heat is your thing, this recipe probably isn’t for you; but if you’d like a mild little chili that’s done in less than an hour, you might give this one a try.
Take:
2 pounds chili-ground lean beef, or venison. (Hamburger meat will do, lean.)
1 pound mild Italian sausage
1 medium-to-large yellow onion
6 cloves of garlic
1 Chipotle cube
3 teaspoons(ish) chili powder (if you’re not mad at Penzeys, sub in 1 teaspoon(ish) of their Chili 9000 for one of the regular chili powder)
1/2 teaspoon smoked salt
1 can Rotel Fire-Roasted tomatoes & chilies
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire-roasted, but up to you)
1 small can Hatch diced mild green chilies
Glug or so of a decent red table wine
Dice your onion, toss it into a frying pan, bung in your meat, and brown the whole mess. Drain off any grease, and dump into your chili pot.
Mince your garlic cloves, and drop them in. (I use squeeze garlic, but I’m lazy.) Put the chipotle cube into a bowl, and mush it into powder, add your chili powder and the smoked salt, muddle the mix a bit with a spoon, and toss it into the pot.
Stir in the Rotel, all of the other tomato, and the chilies. Simmer for about twenty minutes, glug in the wine, stir, simmer another ten minutes (plus or minus), then serve with shredded Mexican cheese mix and crackers.
Voila! Quick and dirty chili.
(Again, if you’re looking for a spicy chili, this isn’t for you. However, if you’re not sure of the heat tolerance of your dinner guests, and don’t have all day to simmer a proper chili, this might do you.)
LawDog
You forgot the beans!
What would you recommend as a replacement for the red wine, if anything? The Mrs. and I are teetotalers and don't keep cooking wine on hand.
Vince – for that savoury flavour profile, if I'm skipping the wine I add a dash of Worcestershire sauce. (For the precise-minded, call it 1 tsp? Might even be right.) Or, if you don't have that on hand, you can add soy sauce instead. However, if soy sauce, you'll want to drain your cans of crushed tomatoes, to keep the salt level down.
Funny that you mentioned being mad at Penzey's. I'm not mad at them, but I certainly quit doing business with them when they started in with pushing their liberal political views on their customers. I'm a live and let live kind of guy – right up until someone starts pushing on me.
Will give the recipe a try.
But, but, the alcohol in the wine evaporates with the heat…..
I was wondering where the squeeze garlic went… Vince, you can just add water in place of the wine.
Penzey's? The ONLY chili powder worth its powder is Gebhardt's, invented in New Braunfels. Absolutely the best there is.
My Lady, who was born in Cincinnati, corrupted me on the subject of Chili. I never took to the slightly-sweet Cincinnati chili (lots of cinnamon, go figure) but serving hot chili over spaghetti with lots of grated sharp cheddar makes a really filling meal. Can't eat it as often as I used to – gout, which the hot spices tends to wake up. Foo.
My late Father used to throw an annual Graduate Students party, for which he cooked a chili with roots in his native Colorado. He'd start the day with three large cauldrons and cook it down to two, adding ingredients the whole time. It was said of the results that if you put a serving on the roof of a VW beetle and left it for a couple of hors, it would eat/melt its way to the street. Not super hot to begin with, but a slooow burn that built over time.
Cooking this for dinner tonight. Might even forget to add beans, just to be different! (Beans being a necessary part of chili imho!)
I attempted to make chili for dinner last night. The family all survived (it was my first attempt at cooking _anything_ for dinner), and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I had to substitute for a few ingredients that don't appear to be available in Canada (Chipotle cubes? Never heard of 'em.)
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
If you don't go for wine or beer (my choice) for liquid, what about just beef broth? I'll eat chili over spaghetti noodles, rice, spaghetti squash, or whatever…. but, if you haven't tried chili over Fritos corn chips(R), you're missing out on a winning combination.
Oops, …"Fritos (R) corn chips"
Actually with the new vacuum sealed box wines you can keep a 1 liter shelf-stable red wine around for your cooking needs.
And if you're mad at Penzy's you can get the same spices from The Spice House.
https://www.thespicehouse.com/chili-con-carne-seasoning