I keep it as simple as possible

by anachronism, Thursday, September 01, 2022, 21:17 (814 days ago) @ AaronB

I keep it as simple as possible, fresh medium hot peppers, generally poblanos and anaheims, roasted and skinned as a lot of depth to the chili. I make my own chili powder following generic recipes, but use anaheims, smoked with apple wood. For meat I use lean hamburger plus an equal amount of Italian sausage. A good brand of tomato juice, thickened with either tomato paste or powdered freeze-dried tomatoes. I saute the roasted, chopped peppers with a generous amount if finely diced yellow onions in olive oil before adding the meat. I do use at least two kinds of beans, generally kidney beans and black beans, usually the beans I can myself. Then several hours in the crock pot before adding the beans at the finish. This approach works very well in cook offs and chili feeds. It's simple enough to not turn people off by being too weird, it's not too hot, which can turn off some people with really sensitive stomachs. There's just enough smokiness from the smoked chili powder to be appealing without being overpowering.