Bro-In-Law's Chili

As promised, I am posting my brother-in-law's chili recipe. A few things you should know about said bro-in-law (who we will call Moe): he is a born Midwesterner raised on deli in St. Louis, but somehow he acquired a tolerance for spicy food more commonly found among Thai people. I think he might be missing the part of the brain that registers HOT food.

Not satisfied with the flavor profile of his coma-inducing chili, customarily served during the Super Bowl, he undertook a quest for something more authentically Southwestern. His research uncovered a recipe that uses ancho chilies to produce a smokey/spicy red chili with a stew-like texture. Please be sure to read the notes at the end of the recipe as they contain information on variations and some valuable cooking tips. Serve this chili with your favorite toppings. I like dipping blue corn chips into it and scooping it up.

Texas Red Chili

Ingredients:
2 # coarse ground beef OR
2 # chuck roast, cut into 1/4” pieces OR
2# stew meat, cut into 1/4” pieces
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 large green bell pepper
1 large Texas yellow onion
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
3 heaping tablespoons Gebhardt chili powder
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, chopped fine
1 green pickled jalapeño pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
6 cups water
3 ancho chili pods
1 tablespoon ground cumin (comino)
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Directions:
Heat the 6 cups of water in a saucepan. While this is heating,
roast the ancho chili pods under a hot broiler for 10 seconds on
each side. Warning: Be very careful as smoke from the chilies contains oils that can irritate your eyes. Keep small children away while doing this step. While protecting your hands with gloves or a towel, remove the pods and, when cool enough to handle, remove the stem and shake out any seeds inside. Place the pods in the water that has come to a boil, cover and remove from the heat. Let ‘steep’ until later in the recipe.

In a large ‘stew’ or ‘chili’ pot, add the oil and butter. When
hot, add the meat. Brown the meat on a medium high heat, stirring often. Cook through until all of the pink has disappeared. While the meat is cooking, peel the onion and dice into 1/4” pieces and remove the stem, seeds, and membrane from the bell pepper. Also
dice the remaining outer skin into 1/4” pieces.

If using ground beef, remove from pot, and drain in a colander, then add back in to pot. Add the onions and bell peppers and stir in well. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic and black pepper. Again stir well.

Add the flour, a little at a time and stir to mix well. Reduce the
heat to medium and let cook for 5 minutes. It will be normal
for some of the flour to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the
broth that has the ancho chili pods in it SLOWLY. Scrape the
bottom of the pot with a spatula and now add the tomato sauce
and the jalapeno pepper (remove seeds for less heat).

Stir to mix well, reduce to medium low and cook uncovered
for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is very tender. Check and
stir every 30 minutes, making sure to scrape the bottom of the
pan with a spatula to keep from burning. Remove and serve
in a large ‘soup’ bowl with crackers and/or jalapeno cornbread.

Optional toppings are finely grated, longhorn cheddar cheese and
fresh, raw, chopped yellow onion.

Moe's Notes:

Moe says: This is the basic recipe. I modify it as follows. The guy who gave it to me (from www.texmex.net) encouraged me to modify it. He sees the basic recipe as a starting point. I double the amount of tomato sauce and bell peppers. I also find that the chili is best by combining meats: 1/2 course ground chuck and 1/2 sirloin steak cut into small cubes. If you combine meats, cook the ground beef first and drain it. Add a small amount of oil to the pot and cook the sirloin, then add the ground beef back in to the pot. To make the chili richer (spicier, but not hotter), I do the following: 1) make sure the ancho peppers steep in the hot water for one hour 2) scrape the flesh from the inside of ancho peppers from the peppers' skin and add the flesh to the chili.

For spicier chili do one or more of the following:

1. add some of the juice from the pickled jalapeño
2. add 1-2 fresh jalapeños in addition to the pickled jalapeño
3. make 3-4 long incisions in each jalapeño (this allows the spicier section of the pepper to seep into the chili)