Variations on chili are endless and everyone
has a secret ingredient. |
 |
 6
Hour Chili |
| Chili
With Beef and Beans |
| Jalapeno
Cheddar Corn Bread |
Classic Chili
(Con Carne)
Chili is one of the most American of dishes, not only because of its native origin but because of its egalitarian nature. Everyone thinks his or hers is the best. You don’t need a culinary degree to make it. Just put some chile peppers and meat in a pot, which is why chili is more accurately called chili con carne, and use your imagination.
“Beyond that, all’s fair,” says Robb Walsh, author of The Tex-Mex Cookbook (Broadway Books). Your chili can contain anything from juniper berries to coffee and leg of lamb to oxtails. Texans tend not to put beans in their chili because they like their starches as an accompaniment to chili. In this regard, Walsh likens chili to Italian red sauce, which is adaptable in so many ways. “Chili with beans would be like red sauce with meatballs,” he says.
Indeed, one theory of chili’s origin is that it was an extension of enchilada sauce, which isn’t far removed from the common notion that chili was created to stretch small amounts of meat, probably by the poor folk of San Antonio, Texas, sometime in the early- to mid-19th century. On the other hand, Walsh notes that Native Americans had chile peppers and meat (probably venison) long before San Antonio was settled.
Texas chili is colloquially known as a “bowl of red,” because of the deep-red or reddish-brown color imparted by the chile peppers. This style of chili—without beans—is so dominant that the championship prize for red chili at the World’s Championship Chili Cookoff, organized by the International Chili Society (ICS) (www.chilicookoff.com), is $25,000. For green chili, it’s $3,000. At the cook-offs for the rival Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI) (www.chili.org), there is no category for green chili.
Green chili or chili verde is popular in New Mexico and, as the name implies, uses green chiles primarily, as well as other green ingredients such as tomatillos and cilantro, and pork (sometimes chicken) instead of beef.
The most famous regional chili outside Texas and the Southwest was created by Macedonian immigrant Tom (Athanas) Kiradjieff in Cincinnati in 1922. Cincinnati five-way chili was named for its multiple layers, beginning with a mound of spaghetti, then chili (seasoned with spices such as cinnamon, clove and nutmeg), chopped onions, red kidney beans and grated cheddar cheese.
When it comes to making Texas-style chili, the key ingredients are chiles. At the 3 Alarm Chili Cookoff, an ICS qualifying event I once attended in Pennington, N. J., the winning chili was made by a quartet of cooks from Firmenich, a flavor and fragrance company in Princeton. The team used four dried chiles: guajillo, ancho, chipotle and New Mexican. The mix helped give their chili a remarkable complexity and depth of flavor.
I like to toast whole dried chiles in the oven, which gives them another flavor dimension, then soak them in hot water and puree them with a bit of the soaking liquid. You can also use already-ground chiles, which should not be confused with chili powder, a blend of ground chiles and other spices such as garlic, cumin and salt. Fresh chiles are seldom used in chili, though I like the herbal note they provide.
Despite the macho image of chili dishes so fiery that only real men can eat them without crying out in pain, the ICS and CASI cook-off rules discourage chili that’s too hot.
After chiles, the most commonly used spice in chili is cumin. Again, for more flavor, toast the seeds before grinding them. Mexican oregano, which is grassier and more floral than the more common Mediterranean oregano, is also a frequent chili ingredient. Then there are those individual seasoning touches. One Pennington contestant added fennel and a small amount of bitter chocolate. Another tossed in a pinch of ground ginger just before serving.
Beef is the preferred chili carne. I like a boneless chuck roast because it has lots of flavor and enough fat to keep it moist. I add some pork for sweetness; pork shoulder is preferred in the recipe that follows. Sausage meat is also used.
Most chili cook-off winners use cubed meat. But Walsh says Texans use ground meat so often that butchers have a special “chili plate” on meat grinders that gives a texture a bit coarser than that of ground hamburger. While the meat is typically browned in fat before stewing, one Pennington cook I talked to grilled the meat (before cubing it and after marinating it overnight) over charcoal and wood chips for added complexity. After two-and-a-half to three hours of gentle simmering, chili should be thick but not pasty or dry.
Good chili doesn't’t need much accompaniment. I serve mine on top of rice, which Texans tend not to do, Walsh says. Instead, they may simply serve it with crackers or, writes Walsh, “combine it with beans, tamales, tortillas, enchiladas, scrambled eggs or any number of other things” to make a meal.
Beer is the beverage of choice for chili (and is occasionally even put in the pot). I particularly liked the fruitiness of a wheat beer and the malty sweetness of a porter with chili. However, don’t discount wine, especially a Zinfandel, a Petite Sirah, a Côtes du Rhône or a Shiraz.
The following recipe is a variation of San Antonio chili, adapted from The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia by Dave DeWitt (Morrow). Add the jalapeño if you want a bit more heat.
Chili con Carne
• 2 pounds chuck, cut into
3/4-inch cubes
• 1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil, preferably grape seed oil
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups each beef and chicken broth
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 2 dried red New Mexican chiles
• 1 dried chipotle chile
• 2 dried pasilla chiles
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
• One 8-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 jalapeño chile, stem and seeds removed, minced (optional)
Preheat oven
to 350° F. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Put the oil in a Dutch
oven or other large, heavy-bottomed stew pot over medium-high heat.
Dredge half the beef in flour, shaking off any excess. Brown well in
the hot oil, then remove to a platter with a slotted spoon. Repeat with
the remaining beef, then the pork.
Pour off any fat from the pot. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until soft. Add the broth and bring to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Return the meat to the pot and simmer gently, covered, for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, toast the dried chiles in the oven for 5 minutes, until puffed and fragrant. Using rubber gloves, remove the stems and seeds. Break up the chiles into coarse pieces. Put them in a bowl, pour boiling water over them and let them soak for 15 minutes. Purée them in a blender with about 1/4 cup of the soaking water, enough to form a smooth paste.
Toast the cumin seeds in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, stirring periodically, until fragrant. Then grind. Add the chile paste, cumin, oregano, tomato sauce and sugar to the meat mixture and simmer gently for an additional 1 1/4 hours, partially covered. Stir periodically. Add the jalapeño, if desired. Add salt as needed. Cook for another 1/2 hour, partially covered.
Serves 8.
How to Get It
Here are some sources for chili ingredients, particularly chiles.
| Melissa’s, Los Angeles, (800) 588-0151, www.melissas.com |
| Frieda’s Inc., Los Alamitos, Calif., (800) 241-1771, www.friedas.com |
| Pendery’s, Dallas, (800) 533-1870, www.penderys.com |
| The CMC Co., Avalon, N. J., (800) 262-2780, www.thecmccompany.com |