Half Time Chili

[Thirsty Mallard]

I'll drink to that!

[BadRock]

And then I top it off with a bit of cheese.

And sour cream...I know....give it a try. Sounds much worse than it is. Can't hardly eat chili without it anymore.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

And sour cream...I know....give it a try. Sounds much worse than it is. Can't hardly eat chili without it anymore.

That is good. I just don't always think of it. I grew up with Fritos and cheese and that's what I grab automatically.

CRAP! I wasn't planning on chili tomorrow, but now I'm hungry for it. I hate you, BadRock.

In a good way, of course. 'Cause you gave me a great recipe.

[BadRock]

Getter' cookin'

I cooked mine the other night then put it in the crock pot so that tomorrow I can throw it on while I'm brewing the BN Army Scottish 70/- I knew that I wouldn't have time to do both!

[Bugeater]

Damn you all! I was all set to grill a nice thick bacon wrapped pork loin chop tomorrow. Now I find myself brewing up a big batch of green chili! Oh well, the pork chop will keep.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[ApexBrewing]

I declare it (at least a modified version) to be a winner.

We had a Chili cook off at our monthly brew club meeting today and this was a pretty big hit. I could not win since I was the host of the cook off but it was the highest vote getter. We awarded second place the prize.

I did tweak a decent bit to suit my tastes though. I made it as follows:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped green pepper (optional)
8 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small can chopped green chilies
3 pounds cubed sirloin or stew meat
5 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree
1 14½-ounce can low-salt beef broth
1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 15- to 16-ounce can prepared chili beans
2 ounce square bittersweet chocolate

I did not like the balance of spices with the chili powder as such a large percentage of the spice bill. I cut it in half and added some Cayenne and crushed red pepper to round out the flavor. I also added the bell pepper and the green chilies to the vegetable sweat. I left out the sausage since I do not care for it in a contest chili. Cinnamon is a finicky spice and depending on the age and storage of the sticks it can have some very different potency. I had to up the chocolate to balance the cinnamon in this batch since it was almost overpowered with the cinnamon.

Overall everyone really enjoyed it and liked the character and different richness the cinnamon and chocolate provided. I will certainly keep tweaking it and trying it.

[BadRock]

Nice work Brotha.

I too thought about adding some bell peppers, I kind of thought that was about the only thing it lacked from a veggie stand point.

As far as the cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper, I would agree that it lacked heat. Unfortunately I have small kids so I have to heat it up on a "bowl at a time" basis. But if anyone is making it they should definitely add some heat to it.

[ApexBrewing]

Mine was not all the spicy really. It had a little heat on the back end, kind of a sneaky heat. Still pretty mild by chili standards. I just felt that the 10 tablespoons was too much and cutting it back with the addition of the stuff it kind of rounded out the flavor a bit.

By the way everyone who uses ground meat for chili owes it to themselves at least once try it the right way with cubed sirloin.