Info
- Course: Main Course
- Skill Level: Moderate
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Favorited: 5 Times
Can be made ahead of time.
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My Chili
Cookbook
My chili changes from day to day. I start with a base of chopped beef, tomatoes, and onions. Chili needs to have a tremendous amount of onions in it. You cook the crap out of the onions, so you don’t really know they are there, but they are the secret to the chili’s tasting good. From its base, my chili is in constant motion. If at the end of the day I have hamburger left over, I cook it on the griddle and throw it in. The same thing with brisket or roast beef or lamb. I don’t even have a routine way of spicing my chili. I add more of this or that as I go along, depending on the way it tastes.
I serve my chili on its own, topped with melted cheddar. I love my chili. I don’t think there has been a single day in the last thirty years that I haven’t tasted it, and I usually have an entire bowlful at least.
Yield : Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
- 2½ pounds chopped meat (20 to 30 percent fat)
- 2 big yellow Spanish onions, chopped
- 1 to 2 tablespoons minced pickled jalapeño peppers, depending on your taste
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 cups Marinara Sauce or any marinara sauce
- ½ cup brewed black coffee
- Masarepa (Hispanic cooked cornmeal) or cornmeal
Directions
Heat a large high-sided sauté pan over high heat until it is so hot that a drop of water will bounce when it hits the surface. Throw on the chopped meat. Spread it out flat with a heavy spatula using a random chopping motion to disperse the meat evenly and break it up into small clusters. Add the onions and cook for 10 to 20 minutes, until the meat is brown all over and the onions have softened and begun to melt away. Sprinkle with the cumin, jalapeño peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano, and sauté for a few more minutes. Add the marinara sauce and the coffee, and cook for about 15 minutes to burn off some of the liquid.
Turn off the heat and leave the chili alone for about 20 minutes so that the fat will rise to the top. Sprinkle with a thin layer of masarepa; this helps absorb the oil. Once you can see that the fat has been absorbed, stir the masarepa into the chili. Simmer the chili over low heat for another 20 minutes (or longer if you like; you can’t cook it too much). Add water or more coffee to the chili if it gets too thick, and season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
If you have time, refrigerate the chili or freeze it before serving. This softens the texture of the meat, which is nice. If you serve the chili for more than one day, certain factors have to be adjusted every day you serve it. Add beef stock, water or coffee if the chili becomes dry, more masarepa if it is too fatty, or more chopped meat (or any cooked meat that you have around) if the chili seems lifeless. Let your chili evolve.
© 2008 Kenny Shopsin
Nutritional Information
Nutrients per serving
This recipe serves 8. Nutritional information includes 1 tablespoon of masarepa, but does not include Marinara Sauce. For nutritional information on Marinara Sauce, please follow the link above.
433 kcal
5 % daily value
6 % daily value
0 % daily value
422 mg
28 mg
23 g
2 g
1 g
5 g
105 mg
713 mg
13 g
35 g
16 % daily value
