Crisp autumn weekend – what to do if you don’t do football? In our house, it’s make chili. As far as I care and practice, there are NO tomato products in chili.
| Get decent-quality hamburger. About 5 lbs. of it. We’re making chili to eat and to freeze.
I prefer at least 93%, but it’s up to you.Cut up a bunch of onions. A seriously large bunch of onions. Don’t use vidalia; they’re sweet. Don’t use red; they taste wrong. Plain ole white onions. Don’t mince or chop. Just cut them up. Onions are very important to chili. |
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| We like pinto beans. Buy them dry in the bag; they’re cheap. Use 2-3 lbs. of beans to 4-5 lbs. hamburger and soak the beans overnight if you can (at least 3 hours if you can’t) and then bring the water to a boil.Go do something else while the beans cook. They have to be soft but not mushy when done. An hour is usually fine.
We don’t use canned beans because most of them have pork and why make chili if you’re not really going to make it? (Too much “juice” in canned beans anyway.) Drain the beans but keep a fair amount of the ‘bean juice.’ |
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Start throwing things into a BIG pot. Add the meat, onions and brown well, then drain.The fun part is adding the spices:
Add chili powder first. Lots of it. Mix. Note that it’s really dry looking. Add bean juice to make just enough liquid and don’t drown it. |
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| This is the critical part: put your nose down in the pot (I mean it, in the pot) and pour in white vinegar just until you can smell the vinegar in the chili. You can add more later, but vinegar is the magic ingredient.Don’t try this at home if you have a cold or stuffy sinuses.
Mix it all up from the bottom and leave it alone for at least 2 hours. Truly – walk away. Cover it, simmer it, leave it alone. Resist the urge to mess with it except to taste a bit and add spices where they are lacking. The most common under-used spice is cumin. Second is black pepper. Get your kick from black pepper and only use a bit of red pepper unless you’re eating with us. |
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Important notes: this recipe is at least 37.5 years old because I started making chili this way when we first got married and hubby was in law school and money really, really mattered. Eat it over rice, with chips, or on any sort of vehicle you prefer. Chili freezes well in old plastic containers or freezer-safe zip bags (handy for single portions but be sure to date the bag). The original source is “The Impoverished Student’s Cookbook” and I’ve had two marriage proposals just from the aroma when it cooks all day. Hubby needs to watch his step or I’ll consider one of them.
Nah.
I agree on the tomatoes, but, only as far as “condiment” chili goes. If I’m making stand alone chili, then it has crushed tomatoes in it. If it’s condiment, I replace the tomatoes with beef broth. (about 1 can)…
Have to disagree, but it’s all a matter of taste. My mother-in-law (z”l) told me that beef broth is used if you make it too spicy. Beef broth can replace bean juice, too. But tomatoes? Never!
Heh. Let’s have a chili cook-off, eh?
See, I don’t do beans… not a fan of beans…
Ah, the “no beans for you” syndrome. I’m not a huge fans of beans by themselves, but they’re OK in chili. To save money, you’d increase the bean-to-meat ratio but it’s really a matter of taste.
How do you each chili as a standalone w/o beans?
Chili cheese fries, dhili con carne (rice and chips), dip bread, and cheese, or just a bowl of it like Chili’s Restaurant…. and a pint of Guinness…. muy bueno…
[...] – I’m going to try Sue’s No Tomato Chili, cornbread (with corn), again with the [...]