Chili!

Here's the chili recipe I've been working on for the last few years. All of these ingredients should be pretty easy to aquire. I also try to use high quality/organic spices, they're a lot better than the off brand stuff.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons: Chili powder

1 Tablespoon: Olive oil, Hot Mexican style chili powder, Cumin

1 Teaspoon: Garlic powder, Onion powder, Berber spice, Salt, Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon: Oregano, Cayenne, Cocoa powder,

1 packet of sazon Goya, 1 beef bullion cube,

Sriracha hot sauce,

2 lbs ground Chuck, 4 strips of bacon,

1 white onion, 1 green pepper, 2 jalapenos, 3 Serrano peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, (All chopped, obviously. Remove seeds from peppers if you don't like it too hot.)

Beef broth 14.5 oz, Light red kidney beans 15.5 oz, Tomato sauce 15.5 oz, Crushed tomatoes 14.5 oz,

12 oz beer (lager or Amber ale),

Corn chips, pepper jack cheese, Green onion, Sour cream,

Steps:

Fry all the vegetables (except garlic) in a skillet on medium heat with olive oil until soft. Add garlic during last minute of cooking. Set aside.

Chop up bacon and fry in the same skillet. Set aside.

Lightly brown hamburger in leftover bacon grease. (Here I like to season the meat lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and sriracha. This is optional and not reflected in the amounts of ingredients given above.) Drain the meat and set aside.

Prepare liquids. (I usually work on this step while frying vegetables and meats.) Pour broth and beer into a large pot over medium heat. When simmering, add beef bullion cube and all the spices except the garlic and cumin. Mix and let simmer for 1 minute.

Add tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, cooked vegetables and meat. Rinse kidney beans and add to pot. Stir and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Add garlic powder and cumin. Simmer for another 1-2 hours until desired consistency, stirring occasionally.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, corn chips, and chopped green onions.

That's it! Sometimes I'll cut back to one pound of beef and sear some Chuck steak cubes and put in it instead. You can substitute different kinds of peppers as well. Anaheim peppers work really good in place of Serrano for a milder chili. Red beans (or no beans) is also good.

bon appetit