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Beef Chili
I make this chili at least once a year - usually in the fall - and invite my close friends over to share, along with tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole. This tradition, and the recipe, began many, many years ago, when I went on a weekend field trip with a small group of fellow students from my high school to a teacher’s farm house in Galena, IL.
I helped organize this trip, and we assigned group meal preparation to different groups of students. Me and my group chose chili and we made 2 types - beef and vegetarian - and I remember being somewhat nervous because I had never cooked for anyone outside of my family, especially for a group of 30 fellow students and teachers!
I was “winging it” to say the least, and I don’t remember what the recipe was or where I got it, but if turned out very well, and received many compliments. In retrospect I see it set me off on the path of enjoying making and sharing good food with family and friends, and “winging it” with recipes…
Over the years I have developed this recipe, and this is the first time I have actually written it down. Ta-dah! Here it is! I made it last weekend and it was perfect for a sleety early spring Saturday night with friends.
- Ground beef - 3-4 lbs ground beef (any kind; 80% lean)
- Bell pepper - 1-2 green peppers, chopped medium
- Onions - 1 large (or 2 small-medium) yellow onion, chopped medium
- Garlic - 10 (yeah 10; about 1-2 tblsp) cloves of garlic, chopped medium
- Tomatoes - 3 28-oz cans of tomatoes. 1 or 2 cans should be whole tomatoes and the rest should be tomatoes puree or sauce
- Jalepeno or other hot pepper - 1/2 to 1 (about 1 tblsp), chopped finely (be careful when chopping)
- Cumin - 3 tblsp powdered
- Oregano - 2 tsp, dried
- Basil - 2 tsp, dried
- Sage - 1 tsp, ground
- Thyme - 1 tsp,powdered
- Salt - 1 tsp
- Black pepper - several course grinds
- Red pepper powder = 1 tsp
- Black beans - 1 15-oz can
- Pinto beans - 1 15-oz can
- Red kidney beans - 1 15-oz can
- Put tomatoes in large stock pot. For the whole tomatoes, either chop or manually break apart into bite size pieces, and put all remaining sauce in the pot.
- Brown the beef in 3 batches in a large frying pan. With the first batch, include the chopped bell peppers with the meat. Use a wooden spoon to chop the beef up; I prefer large chunks.
- When the meat is no longer pink and the peppers are soft, remove grease and put meat into the large pot with the tomatoes.
- Cook the onions with the 2nd batch and follow the same process. For the 3rd batch, include the garlic and jalepeno pepper.
- After all meat has been cooked and added to the tomatoes sauce, blend thoroughly and cook on low heat.
- Add spices, blend thoroughly and simmer for 1 hour.
- Drain the beans and add to the meat/tomato mixture. Blend thoroughly and cook for another 45 minutes or so.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
Serving suggestions and comments:
- Serve in bowls and top with grated Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese.
- Serve with hot cornbead muffins - yum!
- I always serve this with chips and salsa
- For beverages, cold Mexican beer with wedges of lime go well with this chili. Last weekend we drank it with 2 types of red wine that both stood up very well to the spicy chili:
- Colosi Rosso Sicilian red wine (2006)
- Maipe Malbec from Argentina (2007)
- This makes a huge batch and easily serves 10 people with leftovers.
- Can be frozen
