Dude Food

Game Day Chili

Beef, two kinds of beans, a dark and smoky base. Feeds a couch full of people.

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Prep
20 min
Cook
2 hr
Total
2 hr 20 min
Makes
8 bowls
Difficulty
easy
Heat
🌶🌶🌶

A big pot of chili with beans in it, the way it gets made in every kitchen north of the Red River. Ground beef browned hard, a mess of onion and garlic, toasted spices, tomato, beer, and both kidney and pinto beans for texture. Two hours on the stove and it sets up thick enough to stand a spoon in. Better the next day, and it freezes like a champ.

Ingredients

Toppings

Gear

  • dutch oven
  • wooden spoon

Method

Tap a step to mark where you are. Tap a time to start a timer.

  1. Brown the beef

    Heat the oil in the dutch oven over high. Add the beef in two batches, pressing it flat and leaving it alone until a dark crust forms before breaking it up. Season with salt as you go. Move it to a bowl, leaving a couple tablespoons of fat in the pot.

  2. Sweat the vegetables

    Drop to medium, add the onion, bell pepper, and jalapenos with a pinch of salt, and cook until soft and starting to brown at the edges. Add the garlic for the last minute.

  3. Toast the spices

    Stir in the chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, cocoa, and cayenne. Keep it moving for about a minute until the whole kitchen smells like it. Then add the tomato paste and cook it until it darkens a shade.

  4. Deglaze

    Pour in the beer and scrape every stuck bit off the bottom of the pot. Let it bubble down by half.

  5. Build the pot

    Return the beef and its juices. Add the crushed tomatoes, stock, Worcestershire, and brown sugar. Stir, bring to a simmer. Taste for salt.

  6. Simmer

    Partially cover and hold at a low simmer, stirring every twenty minutes or so and scraping the bottom. It should thicken and go a shade darker.

  7. Beans in

    Stir in both cans of beans and simmer uncovered until the chili is thick and the beans are heated through and have taken on the flavor of the pot.

  8. Finish

    Taste. Fix the salt and pepper. If it tastes flat, the vinegar wakes it up. Ladle into bowls and let everyone bury it in toppings.

Notes

  • tipDay two is better than day one. Cool it, fridge it overnight, reheat gently with a splash of stock.
  • tipThe beans go in late on purpose. Two hours in the pot turns them to mush; thirty minutes gets them seasoned and still whole.
  • variationSwap one pound of the ground beef for cubed chuck, browned the same way, and add thirty minutes to the simmer.
  • variationBlack beans in place of the pinto, or all three if you are feeding a crowd.
  • pairingCornbread with honey butter, and the rest of the six-pack that went in the pot.
  • warningChili powder blends vary a lot in heat and salt. Taste before you add the cayenne.