Need help with chili for competition

Chili is always good reheated, so make it a day ahead.....unless the rules require making it onsite?

Best tip is to source dried chiles, dry toast, then soak in hot water and purée. Use a very small amount of unsweetened chocolate, and the barest pinch of cinnamon, plus a decent dark beer,

Definitely not a serious competition. I appreciate the replies.

This 9 page thread will tell you everything you need to know how to flex

But if you mention groundmeat Powerman is going to lose his shite.

Google

"Purdue boilermaker chili". It's a great recipe.

I won a 4H chilli cook off. All I did was use the 2 alarm chilli kit. I browned 5 pounds of ground meat, removed it, added 2 chopped onions, 2 cans of rotel and 2 cans of tomato sauce and cooked that down about an hour. Then added my ground meat back, 2 cans of water and the contents of 2 packs of 2 alarm chilli. Cook that about 45 minutes and then added 20 semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Just buy Wendy’s and give it to em

quote:

---

divide your seasoning up into thirds and use 1 batch when cooking, the second batch when about 30 minutes from done and the last batch just before serving.

---

This is really good advice!

I heard Alton Brown or one of those other big time chefs on a cooking show talk a couple lines about chili powder/chili seasoning being fragile especially considering how powerful the end results are. That chili flavors break down rapidly over high heat and extended oxidation in the cook. Similar to how coffee does and nobody wants this morning's brew served to them at 8pm.

Oh, if you want to make a simple authentic from scratch chili, here is a link for my Chile Colorado that I just made. It turned out super awesome and was much easier than I thought it would be. It has a different flavor so I would suggest making it prior to giving it to other people.

My Chile Colorado Step By Step

I just found this thread, and I traced it back to the necro-thread from 2011.

1. Meat.. Powerman is correct about the meat used in the original chile con carne concoction. It was made with hand-cubed meat, because the first cranked meat grinder was not even invented until after the first cattle drives and it is unlikely that a busy camp cook took the time to use his knives to dice the meat to a comparable size. Even if one had existed, it is unlikely that a cattle drive would have wasted weight carrying a heavy cast iron meat grinder thousands of miles just to put finer-ground meat into the bellies of the hired help.

Personally, my protein mix is about 2/3 cubed/diced beef and about 1/3 fatty, rough/chili ground beef (for the fat). I cook the cubes down at a very low temperature until they have disintegrated into strings. I add the chili-ground meat later in the simmer (when the cubes have gotten REALLY tender) to retain some of its texture as well. Yes, it takes longer, but the final texture of the combination is more interesting than than a homogenous hamburger meat mush. Texture is part of the dining experience. With the broth discussed below, I get three distinct textures, rather than the mush that many people call “chili.”

If someone prefers spicy hamburger meat mush, more power to him. I will even politely eat it, if the mush is offered to me. Hell, it is what Mom made when I was a kid. Sometimes it even tastes quite good.

2. Beans.. The other ingredients would have been limited to dried items that could bounce along in the chuckwagon for weeks or months on the cattle trail. Fresh peppers and tomato would NOT have been on the menu.

On the other hand, dry beans were a staple on cattle drives. It would surprise me if Cookie did not combine the two dishes on occasion for chile con carne y frijoles, though I prefer my chile con carne sin frijoles.

Given a choice, no frijoles for me, but not nearly as inauthentic as some would argue.

3. Rice.. Rice is a big “no” in (or under) an authentic chile con carne. The dish was developed on cattle drives originating in Texas, and rice would likely not have been readily-available, and Mexican-style rice is more labor-intensive than typical camp cooking for a large group.

With that being said, good chile con carne is WONDERFUL served over good Mexican rice. I eat it that way maybe a quarter of the time.

4. Chili Powder. I do NOT use commercial chili powder. It is just a combination of other spices, and you have no way of knowing exactly what ingredients or proportions were used by the manufacturer. I prefer to make my own homemade chili powder directly from the component spices, so that I control those variables. I make several cups at a time and keep it in a freezer.

5. Produce.. I am less-than-authentic in the sense that I do use SOME fresh ingredients: onions, garlic and jalapeño. I do not apologize to the Gods of Authenticity for doing so.

6. Broth.. I prefer for my chili to NOT be a homogenous mush, but rather to have solids suspended in a broth .. thicker than soup-watery, but still distinctly liquid and thinner than heavy-stew-paste. To thicken the water to a thickish broth, I use the method of mixing a bit of maza into dark beer. I prefer Negra Modelo.

I have made chili at a few school fundraisers, and I substitute one of the dark NA beers when I do so. Not quite as good, but it does not upset the faculty.

7. Fairy.. Historical accounts do not mention carrying cheese on cattle drives for obvious reasons, so it is probably not historically-authentic. I do not care, because I like it on chili. I prefer sharp cheddar to white Mexican cheeses, which I find bland.

Sour cream is not terribly authentic, either, but a dollop in chili is DELICIOUS.

8. Unusual Ingredients.. I like a bit of unsweetened chocolate in my chili, even if it is not authentic. It adds a similar flavor to chipotle morita, at about 2% of the cost of getting the same anount of flavor with morita.

Believe it or not, a VERY small touch of cinnamon is also quite good. Like less than half a teaspoon per gallon. It adds that little bit of flavor that makes the diner say “There is something here I cannot QUITE identify ...”

======

As an aside, one of my friends started calling my recipe “chewli,” combining chili and stew. It stuck with a lot of our buddies, and I am often asked to prepare “chewli” for one function or another.

Skip sugar chocolate and cinnamon and add a few red hot candies.

Smoked brisket as mentioned above is amazing in a Texas red style chili.