3 Bean 3 Meat 4 Alarm Chili
The day was gray and misty and Chili had to be made. But not just any ol' chili. Naw, I cranked this one up on high ya'll! This recipe is designed to be forgiving and flexible from an ingredient perspective. Don’t like or don’t have green bell peppers, use any other color you like. Don’t like beans in chili? Well, I disagree with you, but it’s your pot of chili. Only have beef on hand? Chicken? Don’t worry about it, use it. Sensitive to heat? I can help with that. Check out the “Notes” section below for some general ideas on all this stuff.
Get in there and make this chili happen!
Here's what you need:
1 lb stew meat (beef)
1 lb Lamb
½ lb Pork
Olive Oil to coat a pan
2 cans Crushed Tomatoes
1 can Whole Tomatoes
1 6oz can Tomato Paste
1 cup black coffee
1 can Pinto Beans
1 can Black Beans
1 can Red Kidney Beans (all beans drained and rinsed)
1 Onion - diced
2 Green Bell Peppers – diced
2 Red (or Jalapeno) Chili Peppers - diced 2
Serrano Peppers - diced
1 Poblano Pepper – diced
6 cloves garlic – minced
Season Mixture:
1 tbs Aleppo Pepper
1 tbs Chili Powder
1 tbs Garlic Powder
1 tbs Onion Powder
1 tbs Cumin Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
Season meat liberally with salt and pepper and set aside. Heat oil in a VERY large Dutch oven. Brown meat (in batches if necessary) to develop good color seasoning with the season mixture. Remove with slotted spoon and place on an unlined plate. Add the veggies and sautee until soft – around 5 minutes. Add garlic and let brown for about 1 minute. Season veggie layer with some of the seasoning mixture. Add tomato paste and let cook for a couple minutes. Add beans and return the meat and any drippings that may have accumulated on the plate. Add tomato products (crush the whole tomatoes with your hands) and black coffee. Mix to incorporate, bring to boil and then reduce to simmer. Cook for at least 2 hours. Garnish with cheddar, pepper jack, sour cream and green onions. Additional garnishes include avocado, pickled jalapeno peppers, and corn chips.
Grab you some ingredients:
Perfect bowl of warmth for a cold day.
NOTES:
The Meat: Look, you can basically use what you have. To be honest, while the fat rendered from the meat brings depth, once this has cooked for three hours all the meat seems to sort of blend together flavor wise. Don’t let it stop you from being creative and/or using what you have on hand, the fridge, or freezer for that matter.
The Heat: If you need to back off the heat, you can reduce the number, de-seed and de-rib (the white parts inside the peppers, the peppers when you’re chopping them. You could omit them altogether and just go with some chili flakes, but I think without some level of heat in the back of your throat, you start walking a thin line to weekday spaghetti sauce.
Wearing gloves while handling peppers is a good idea BTW, but if you don’t have any, be sure to wash your hands really well. Avoid contact with the eyes and other sensitive areas.
The Coffee: I’ve done this for years way before I saw someone on the Barefoot Contessa recommend it. I can tell a difference if it is not there for sure. It just brings a bit of darkness to the whole thing and gives it that “hmmmmm, what is that?” factor.
Seasoning: This is another area you can experiment based on what you have. Cinnamon and/or a bit of ground clove can add to the “darkness.” Cumin and chili powder are must haves, and I’ve recently fallen in love with Aleppo Pepper and can’t put it in enough things.
