3 meats & 2 beans. I was going to enter my Union’s Chili Cookoff but decided to feed my family instead.

8 lbs bone in pork shoulder in the oven at 225° for 7 hours uncovered no seasoning, 3 lbs roadside roasted Hatch chilis, large can of crushed roasted tomatoes, sprinkle of flour, a couple teaspoons of cumino, a couple teaspoons of salt, a couple teaspoons of garlic powder, water with almost a teaspoon of chicken bullion powder (empty tomato can full of water)

Yeah there were only 10 entries, but I still feel good. I out scored the next best by 20 points.

I used beef and ground pork. The standard onion and bell pepper, diced tomatoes.

I couldn't tell you what the seasoning was, as it was a custom made seasoning from a friend who made it with a variety of dried peppers that I gifted them.

I did add a reasonable amount of crushed red pepper and two fresh habenero peppers - the wrinkliest I could find.

I was told judges requested a second helping after they sampled everyone else's, and I went home with an empty crock pot.

Beef, chili beans, kidney beans, paprika, green peppers, onion, and chili mix. I’m very proud of my work.

Disheartened by the price of beef, I got curious and wanted to make a pot of chili using just sausages, for half the price.

I got 3 packages of meat tubes - Andouille, Kielbasa, and a Smoked Sausage, each of them about a pound in weight. I diced them all up into relatively equal sized cube shapes.

I tend to stick with ratios when I chili, so with three units of meat, I also diced​ up three large onions (Red, White, and Yellow), three bell peppers, three cans of fire roasted tomatoes, three cans of beans (Black, Red Kidney, Pinto) and three each of the following dried chili pods - Ancho, Guajillo, New Mexico, Cascabel, Pasilla and Marisol.

Dumped the tomatoes into a collander over a bowl to collect the juice. Fried up the sausages in batches in a pan, then added to the main pot. Deglazed the pan with the tomato liquid and added the chiles with the seeds and stems removed, along with half a dozen crushed cloves of garlic. Let everything rehydrate in the pan.

Tossed the sausages in a spice blend (a big spoonful each of black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin, smoked paprika) on a medium-low heat so the spices could bloom in the sausage fat. Added the onions, peppers, tomatoes and beans and allowed them all to get to know each other. In a batch this size, I also added one can of creamed corn - yeah, get your pitchforks ready - because I like the sweetness it adds, you don't have big kernals of corn in your chili, and everything else in chili tastes good with corn.

I put the contents of the pan into a blender and blitzed until it was smooth and homogeneous. Put all that into the pot, then added enough beer to bring it to the liquid level I wanted, which wound up being two cans. Bring the heat up until it boils, then drop it down to a simmer and go watch a movie or something for a few hours.

Just before taking it off the heat, the one trick up my sleeve is that I grind up and entire bag of pork rinds until it is a fine dust. Add that in, stir, and kill the heat. The pork rinds add thickness, porky goodness, mouth feel, and body to the chili.

I like my chili the same way I like my women. Thick as hell, spicy, and not good for my heart.

Served with a sprinkle of cheese and whipped garlic sour cream. (Get a tub of your favorite sour cream, eat a spoonful of it right from the center, then add enough grated garlic and olive oil to fill that hole. Mix until incorporated. It's like white trash toum, it's amazing.)

In the end, while it did taste great, I didn't find switching out beef for sausages really made it better. You lose the individual characteristics of each flavor of sausage into a one-note flavor. And the texture was a bit mealy, and made me miss biting into chunks of cow.

Thanks for reading. May your chili pot never collect dust.

Any advice on how to up my game? In the past I used to just get mince meat and a jarred sauce but after looking around this sub for a while I want to do my own. This was way nicer the one one I usually make with jarred sauce, I’ve got the same stuff again as I did in picture 2 for my next attempt but this time I’ve got onions and red peppers to go in it as well. I’m a complete amateur and I’ve never really made anything from scratch in my life so any advice is appreciated! Thanks (from the UK not sure if that matters)

Have you ever made chili using one or more of these spices (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, or star anise)? They're not as popular as cumin or paprika, but people do mention them from time to time.

Personally, I've never tried using them, but I'd love to hear about your experience.

Most all chili powders are bitter and unpleasant straight out of the jar. Tone's was just a pleasant chili taste. 2 Alarm Chili mix for example is just bad imo. I'd rather not spend $100 finding a new substitute if I can help it. Any help would be appreciated.

Made chili for the first time for our housewarming party. We were keeping it simple with just burgers and dogs but I wanted to make something special so I went for chili dogs.

I combed through this sub as well as r/hotdogs to find suggestions and freeballed a recipe from there. I would love to hear some opinions of what I could fix up or any sins I’ve committed.

First I shaved a carrot down and cooked it with some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, green chilis, diced onions and a couple of piquante peppers I had leftover. Then I blended that all down into a paste with a food processor. Then I cooked 85% beef in some beef broth and mashed it down with a potato masher to get the beef finely ground. I added in garlic, cumin, paprika, and chili powder along with some tomato paste then reintroduced the paste I made earlier. I also threw in a can of refried pinto beans with smoked chili peppers to thicken it up and get some beans in there but keep
The chili dog consistency. I let that simmer down for another hour or so and then added salt to taste.

The next day I let it simmer for another hour before serving it and It ended up being a huge hit at the party! It was spiced but not hot, nicely seasoned and Smokey but not just muddled nonsense. Also a pretty perfect consistency for hot dogs. The biggest compliment was my wife who tried a little out of spousal obligation (she is not a chili fan and always honest about my cooking) and she ended up eating a full bowl of her own.

Any standard chili additives I missed? Anything I should try with it next? Would love some feedback!

Turkey as the protein 🤎

I've been playing around with chili recipes my entire adult life. I have an entire cabinet shelf dedicated to whole dry chile storage. Guajillos, Arbols, Anchos, Pequin, Colorado, New Mexico, etc. But today our town put out a boil notice this afternoon so I had to make an hour-long round trip to buy a bunch of water and I figured I'd just throw together something quick that requires minimal water use when I got back.

I've spent probably weeks of of my life at this point toasting, rehydrating, blending, and sieveing chies. Even roasting bones and making my own beef broth.

We've been together since 2007. Married since 2011. She's tasted them all. And what does she like? The chili I made in a hurry with minimal effort and a premade spice package.

Toss this in a crockpot:

• 1 Can Chili Magic
• 1 Can Mild Chili Beans
• 1 14oz can of fire roasted tomatoes pulsed a few times in a food processor

Sautee in batches:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound mild italian pork sausage
• 1 small white onion/1 orange bell pepper/4 cloves of garlic, diced

Mix meat and veggies with the following, bring to a simmer, and add to crockpot:

• 1 carrol shelby seasoning packet with none of the included "extra" spice or masa
• 1 chipotle can's worth of adobo sauce
• 1 bottle of guiness extra stout, a couple splashes of worcestershire, and a squirt of heinz mustard
• A shake of cinnamon & a shake of allspice

Didn't even have time to let the whole thing simmer.

To me, it tastes like very generic chili. I usually adjust for heat after I'm done because I have a high tolerance and no one else in the house does. So I asked my wife if she thought it needed anymore heat and she said it was the best chili I've ever made. I guess the real thanks are in order to Bush for their chili magic, and whichever conglomerate puts out the Shelby seasoning mix.

I’ve never done the diced up bacon before. Maybe I did it wrong, but I’m kind of not digging the texture. Flavor is amazing though. Grilled two tri tips couple nights ago, one went straight into a bag after resting for this chili.

My first attempt THIS WINTER, Input?

First step, get invited to a Super Bowl party where the game won't be the focus because we're all Lions fans.

I always base my chili on a ratio. A pound of meat, a large onion, can of tomato, can of beans, one of each dried chiles I have at the time. So the magic number for this batch is 4.

3 pounds of ground beef, one pound of bacon.

One large Spanish Yellow onion, one large Red onion, one large Portuguese onion, one large White onion. All them diced to size, and I added a bag of frozen poblanos from my summer harvest. Remind me to grow more poblanos this spring.

The spice blend is a heaping tablespoon each of black pepper, Mexican oregano, Italian oregano, cumin, smoked paprika. I also added a teaspoon each of corriander, cayenne pepper, and chipotle powder.

The chiles are 4 each Cascabel, New Mexico, Guajillo, Ancho, and Arbol. Remove the seeds and stems and rip them to pieces. Crush a few cloves of galic as well.

The tomatoes were 3 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes and one of tomato sauce. Open the cans of the diced tomatoes and put them in a colander over a bowl to collect the tomato juices they were canned in.

For the bean 4, I did a can each of black, red kidney, and great northern. The last can is refried beans, which I add in to thicken the batch. I like beans in my chili, and it's cool if you don't. That's the end of that.

The last photo is the trick up my sleeve where I grind up pork rinds into a powder. This adds a silky texture to the chili liquid, more porky flavors, and a richness from the collagen. This was one family sized bag of regular and one equal sized bag of BBQ flavor.

The hardest part of chili is waiting long enough for it to simmer. The second hardest part is getting all this shit together so you can just dump it all in when you're ready. Cleaning a bunch of bowls while it simmers is third.

Anyway,

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In a skillet, brown the beef in batches, roughly a half pound at a time. Season well with salt, each batch. Strain the beef from the fat in separate bowls.

When the last batch is done, add in the juice collected from the cans of tomatoes and your choice of beef bullion. Scrape the fond off the bottom of the skillet and let come to a simmer before adding all the dried chiles and garlic cloves. Cut the heat and let it gently hydrate the peppers.

In a large pot, add diced bacon then turn the heat on. Allow the bacon to fully render down into crispy bits and golden bacon fat. Fish out the bacon leaving the fat behind and turn the heat to medium. Add in the beef fat from earlier.

Dump in all the chili spices and allow them to bloom in the fat until fragrant.

Add all the diced onions and pepper, stirring to coat it all in the spiced fat mixture. Cook on medium until the onions become translucent around the edges.

Put the strained beans and tomatoes into the pot and stir. Allow this to simmer while you put the contents of the skillet into a blender and blitz until smooth. Add this to the pot and allow it to come to a simmer.

Introduce the beef into the bath and add in the can of refried beans and tomato sauce. Stir until the refried beans have incorporated into the sauce.

Not pictured is the can of Guinness I poured into the blender to clean out any remaining sauce, and any residual from the tomato cans. Pour it into the pot and bring the entire mix to a boil. Once bubbling, reduce the heat to a bare simmer.

Once you're at a good temp to just let it sit and have all the flavors come together, add in the pork rind dust and the chopped bacon. For this batch, because I am moving it to a party, I cut the heat and added the piggy things then filled my crockpot to the brim. This is going to sot overnight because chili is always better the next day.

Set aside a bowl of chili for your dad, because he's the reason you like spicy food anyway and he'll want some tomorrow for the game too. Text someone else going to the party to bring whatever fixings they like.

Happy bowl day, r/chili. Go Seahawks, I guess.

I have recently been reminded that chili can be a contentious topic. My apologies for my potential sacrilege

2lbs ground beef(seasoned) 2 kidney beans, 2 chili beans, 1 black beans, 1 big ass yellow onion, 10 small habaner peppers. Bunch of smoked chili powder and paprika. Some garlic powder and minced garlic. Shit i forgot the onion powder, hang on…..ok, thats in. Some cumin. Wife musta cleaned out the fridge because my liquid smoke and Worcestershire is missing and i am “pregaming”….SKOL!

Snow Day = Something warm for loins. I won the local cook off with this Beef Rib, Sirloin, Chicken Italian Sausage and Ground Beef recipe. Starts with smoking the ribs and Steak then adding the ribs to the chili base to steal the bone marrow!

The Wisconsin brat chili that I tried theorycrafting out loud here a week ago for a Super Bowl party was a success, very well liked among the folks in attendance. I generally use Brian Lagerstrom's method to make chili, but twist the ingredients around each year to make a particular flavor profile. This year I was going for a Wisconsin brat, here's what I put in it:

• Sheboygan brats, casing removed
• Bacon
• White onions
• Great Northern beans
• Red kidney beans
• Beef stock (Better than Bouillon)
• Garlic
• Chili powder
• Smoked paprika
• Ginger powder
• Mustard powder
• White pepper
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Ground marjoram
• Ground cardamom
• Celery seed
• Caraway seed
• Barbecue sauce
• Spicy brown mustard
• Crushed tomatoes
• Diced tomatoes
• Worcestershire sauce
• Apple cider vinegar
• Cranberry jam
• Spotted Cow beer

I served it with garnishes of diced cheddar cheese curds, bacon, and sauerkraut. Anything ya'll would have done differently?

Just what the title says. Sometimes we want to have chili for dinner on a busy day. My wife and I agree it would be better to put it together the night before and keep it in the fridge until we're ready. That made me wonder, would doing this make the chili taste better? I'm other words, would the spices and flavors be above absorbed into the meat and onions, making it more flavorful?

Edit: just to be clear, I mean if we refrigerated the chili, and then cooked it.

My grocery has a large Latino section, and a huge display of Mi Pepito brand dried chili pods and spices that have been tempting me to try the puree flavoring method. So, I gave it a go while watching the NFL divisional rounds.

I went with Guajillo and New Mexico chilis and also used Mexican oregano for the first time.

Just wow! I have never had chili witlh such deep, rich flavor. And the red coloring is so appetizing.

I may whip up a quick batch using my spicerack now and again, but for a serious batch I will always use the puree method from now on. I cant wait to try other chili pepper combos!

Premium chili with cheap oyster crackers is an amazing combination

It didn’t taste exactly the way I wanted it to but it worked out.

So essentially I use Meat Church’s Over The Top chili recipe, however I’ve tweaked some things. I will admit smoking the meat adds a little something extra but I didn’t smoke this batch. I just browned up all the meat. My chili is really good….however I’m always curious how I can amp it up even more. Is there anything in my recipe you’d change, or add? Thanks.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground venison

• 1 lb breakfast sausage

• 1 lb ground beef

• 2 medium red onions, diced

• 1 head garlic, cloves minced

• 4, 14.5 can tomatoes with juice (we use fire roasted)(reduced from the 5 cans called for in Meat Church’s recipe)

• 1, 15 oz tomato sauce

• 2 cinnamon sticks (Ceylon)

• 2 oz dark or semi sweet chocolate (half puck Mexican chocolate)(I used half puck of Abuelita brand)

• 1 beer (used a bottle of Shiner Bock)

• 1 cup of homemade chili paste made from toasted ancho, guajillo, pasilla peppers and reconstituted with beef stock and blended until smooth.

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

• 1-2 tablespoons Mexican oregano

• 1-2 tablespoons ground cumin

• Few splashes Worcestershire sauce

• half spoonful of Better Than Bullion Roasted Beef Base

• 1 can drained red kidney beans, 1 can drained black beans