holy grail chili

I guess this blogger has become about food. I mean, I could write about other shit. about shelby and my dad and the farm and feelings and sadness and school. but while not thinking about all of those things I do my favorite thing... cook. In the last week I've made some weird stir fry, and some peanut butter cookies, and some fried chicken. And last night, I found my holy grail of chili. Let me explain.

For the longest time the only chili I've known is my mother's. and while it's very good, it's fairly tomato-ey and not very spicy. I'm a big fan of spicier and smokier chili and for a few years I've been trying recipes to try and find a new chili for myself. Last night I tried this allrecipes.com chili. I varied it a bit, and here's what I came up with:

1 big onion, chopped.
4 cloves garlic, minced.
3 chile peppers, seeded, stemmed, chopped. (I used one poblano, one jalapeno, one serrano) set half aside for later.

(sweat these in some vegetable oil in a large heavy pot for a few minutes on low to medium heat)

1 lb ground beef. I think I used chuck.
1 lb top sirloin steak, trimmed of fat and cubed

(add this to onions and oil and mix and cook until the redness in the meat is gone. then drain most of the excess liquid off of the beef)

1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 (12oz) can or bottle of dark beer. I used some trinity red from trader joe's
2 teaspoons of espresso powder
2 (6oz) cans of tomato paste
1 (14oz) can of beef broth


(open all these cans and add them to the beef and onions. bring this up to a simmer)

1/4 cup brown sugar. (I actually used 1/2 cup, I think it was too sweet)
3-1/2 tablespoons of chili powder (mine is homemade from Alton Brown's recipe)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon coriander

(feel free to throw these in as the mixture is coming up to a simmer)

2 (15oz) cans kidney beans. (I used a mix of dark and light red)
the other half of the chopped chiles.

(stir these in once it comes up to a simmer. then let simmer, covered, for 1 hour or more.)

1 (15oz) can of kidney beans

(stir in another can of kidney beans and simmer another 30-45minutes)

This chili was so smokey and sweet and spicy. and while I don't normally like to cook so much from cans, I was in heaven. the original recipe can be found here. I made some slight modifications, which I've reflected above. and this isn't exactly what I made, but it's what modifications I will make the next time. it was so good I'm excited to go home soon and have some more.