Tips for Making the Best Chili
Easy Ways to Take a Typical Chili Recipe and Make it a Standout
Jan 2, 2008
Chili is the perfect meal if you have to serve a lot of people for a large party or a big event like the Super Bowl. While the basic chili ingredients consist of meat, canned tomatoes, beans and spices, you can pick and choose from the following to kick your chili up a notch.
Chili Meat
Chili usually does contain meat; however, some people make a chili vegetarian by omitting it and making it a beans chili. Most typically used in chili is regular ground chuck for a beef chili but there are other options such as ground turkey, ground pork or ground chicken, stewing beef, sausages such as chorizo, andouille and pork, shredded chicken and bacon. For a really meaty chili any two or three of these meats can be used. The meat must be cooked first. Never add raw meat to chili.
Chili Beans
Traditionally, the most common beans used in chili are red kidney beans, but for something different substitute white beans, black beans, navy beans, Mexican red beans, lima beans, cannelloni beans, or a combination thereof.
Chili Spice
Chili needs lots of spices. Prepackaged chili spice can be used, as well as typical seasonings of chili powder, oregano, cumin, paprika, ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, cilantro (fresh) and, of course, garlic. Cook the garlic with the meat as opposed to adding it raw into the chili.
Chili Hot
A lot of people like their chili hot, and hot means spicy. To add a mild heat use Worchestershire sauce, steak sauce, or Poblano chiles. For a medium heat add red pepper flakes (can be medium to hot), chopped jalapenos, chopped green chiles, or chipotle chile peppers in adobo sauce. To add quite a bit of heat and make a really spicy chili try habanero chiles (very hot), cayenne pepper, red chili sauce, Tabasco sauce, or hot sauce. Warn guests first if going for the latter.
Chili Tomatoes
Regular canned plum tomatoes can be used, but there are other varieties on the market that will add new flavor to your chili, such as fire roasted or Mexican. Some people don’t add tomatoes, just tomato sauce, and some people use a mixture of both. Tomato puree and tomato paste can be added to make it thicker.
Chili Sweet
To offset the hot spice, some people like to add a touch of sweetness to their chili using a small amount (tablespoon) of either brown sugar, molasses, honey, white sugar or maple syrup.
Chili Vegetable
It is good to add diced vegetables to chili to give it some crunch. Onions are a stable, but other chili vegetable options include celery, diced carrots, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, zucchini, red onions, green onions, and corn kernels.
Chili Alcohol
For some final “kick” to the chili, some alcohol can be added, such as beer (usually a dark beer), tequila, gin, even red wine. For beer, typically add about 8 ounces, but for tequila and gin, stick to just 2 or 3 ounces.
Whether making a turkey chili, chicken chili, beef chili or some other combination, chili is a great food to experiment with. Plus the meat and beans make it a very high protein meal. Hope yours is the best chili yet.
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