Tuesday Dinners

Get the Hell Out of Dodge Chili

No noodles here.

⏲️ Prep Time
30 Minutes

⏲️ Cook Time
1 Hour

🍴 Makes
16 Pounds

Ingredients

  • 1-2 pounds steak
  • 4 28 ounce cans of peeled/stewed/diced tomatoes in either zest or Italian seasoning
  • 1 pound of chunky salsa
  • 3 large white onions
  • Bell peppers (red, green, yellow)
  • 3-5 jalapenos
  • 2 cans chili beans with sauce
  • 1-2 cans black beans
  • 1-2 cans navy beans
  • 1-2 cans dark red kidney beans
  • 1/3-1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons Maggi sauce
  • Chili powder (to taste)
  • Cayenne pepper (to taste)
  • 1-2 teaspoons chipotle pepper
  • Pinch of mustard seed
  • 1-2 cups brown sugar
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon old bay seasoning
  • 4-5 squares milk chocolate
  • 3-4 squirts yellow mustard

Directions

  1. Chop all your vegetables, drain your beans, trim your steak and cube it
  2. In your pot add your steak with the mustard, chipotle pepper, cayenne pepper, Maggi sauce, Worcestershire sauce and cook until browned
  3. Add your chopped vegetables to the pot and allow to cook until onions are sweated
  4. Add your beans and cook until all ingredients have achieved a uniform temperature
  5. Add all remaining ingredients, cook on low for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally

Step by Step Directions

Chili is way easier if you do all your chopping at one time, so I’d recommend starting with this. Ideally all your meat cubes and veggies will be roughly the same size after you’re done.

But… if you want to save some time feel free to grab some bags of pre-chopped stir fry pepper and onions from the freezer aisle, it’ll dramatically decrease the prep time required.

I also prefer to drain my beans at this time, I just dump them all into a colander and let the dry off/mix together while I’m cooking the meat and vegetables.

You’ll want to start off by browning your meat in a pan, this should be done with the mustard, Maggi sauce (which is found near the liquid smoke in the grocery store), chipotle and cayenne pepper and Worcestershire sauce, you’ll make a coating for the meat while it’s browning. It doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through, we’ll be doing a lot more stewing of the meat.

Now you can add your vegetables to the pan. I like to cook them until the onions are sweated and if you pick one out of the pan it tastes like the sauce we made for the meat (i.e. you can taste the mustard).

Now I add the beans. There’s a lot of them, so we want to make sure that the initial cooking is done evenly. Stir occasionally and keep cooking until all the ingredients in the pan are the same temperature.

Now it’s really simple. Just add in every other ingredient that’s listed above that you haven’t added yet. It’s about this time that I always realize just how much food I’m making and end up texting a few friends asking if they want some chili.

Now just let your chili cook down. Chili is a stew, not a soup, so you don’t want it to be too watery and you want all the flavors to be mixed together nicely. I typically will let the chili cook for at minimum 30 minutes but frequently will just leave it on the stove for a couple of hours.

Feel free to top with cheese and serve with some kind of carb of your choosing.

Enjoy.

Variations

  • Include more or less spice. It always feels weird putting “to taste” in a recipe but you know your tolerance better than anyone else. This recipe has sent people to the ER.
  • Don’t add beans, Texans won’t want to anyways, it’s your prerogative and your kitchen, do what you want.
  • Don’t add meat, it’ll still be chili, it just might now have the depth of flavor the original has.
  • Add noodles. It’s no longer chili at this point, it’s goulash (according to my father), but if you just need some elbow macaroni then I can’t stop you.

Unsolicited Feedback

  • MP: This is too spicy, why did you put peppers in there?
  • LK: I like beans because they give me an excuse for farting.
  • HN: Why is there chocolate in there, don’t you know I’m watching my weight?