Chili con Carne

Chile is a dish with a million recipes. A whole lot of them are good. This is pretty traditional and sized to fit my crock pot which is too old to remember the size. But it's about 3 quarts.

First the meat. Prepare the following as described:

• 1 lb beef - I like short ribs or some non-descript and cheap cut of beef with a fair amount of fat. Some bones are good too. I like to get some marrow bones and add them in. A simple choice is just "stew meat". You need to slice it into 1/4 inch bits across the grain.
• 1 lb pork - Pork butt or pork stew meat is good or you can use the cheap pork chops with the funny shaped bones. Again slice into 1/4 inch bits across the grain.
• 1 large chicken breast - Cut into 3/4 inch cubes.
• 1 large onion - chopped
• 3 Tbsp oil
• One can (2 cups or so) chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• water

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the meat in small batches so the bottom of the pan is covered but the meat is all in one layer. brown on two sides leaving the other edges raw. Add to the crock pot. Repeat until all the batches are browned.

Add a bit more oil and saute the onion until it turns soft and translucent. Add that to the crock pot.

Add the broth to the pan, and stir until the bits of flavor stuck to the bottom of the pan come loose. Pour the liquid into the crock pot.

Add enough water to cover the meat just barely and cook covered on high for 8 hours. You can, if you want, just cook it until the meat is no longer raw but the extra hours make it so much more flavorful and tender.

Be sure to check now and then to make sure the water isn't cooking down too far. If the water level exposes the meat, add some more HOT water to the crock pot.

When the time is up, turn the crock pot down to low and let it cook for another 20-30 minutes. The time doesn't need to be exact. Do not stir or move the pot during this time. This will let the oil from the fat rise to the top so you can spoon it off. Spoon off the fat very gently with a large spoon or ladle. How much oil depends on how much fat was in the meat. No fat and the meat will be tough. The only price to pay for too much fat is that you have more oil to dip off. (If you disturb it too much you can stir it up and let it set for another 20-30 minutes and dip off some more oil.) Note that you can also dip off oil after adding the other ingredients and cooking some more.

Add the spices:

• 4 Tbsp New Mexico style red chile powder - your choice of hot or mild. (Do not confuse this with regular "chili powder". Look at the ingredients. If there is anything except ground bits of chile pods, don't use it. "chili powder" typically contains garlic and oregano, which we don't want here.) I like the New Mexico chile powder for two reasons. 1) I grew up in New Mexico and it seems the right thing to do. 2) I like to choose the proportions of garlic and other spices instead of letting the spice vendor do that.
• 2 Tbsp sugar (or honey)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (not garlic salt)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp oregano (dried flakes)
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• 2 tsp finely ground cumin (or comino in spanish)
• 1 Tbsp salt

Stir  together and then add:

• 2 - 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes - make sure to avoid the kind with spices already added. (Some people might like a third can of tomatoes if they prefer their chili more tomato-y.
• 1 can pinto beans, drained (about 2 cups) - The beans are optional. Some people don't like beans in their chili. Alternatively you can cook some dry or fresh pinto beans in water and add the beans without the liquid to the crock pot.
• 3/4 cup yellow lentils, dry - Optionally you can precook these in water until soft and either mash or blend them to a thick soupy consistency. The purpose of these is to thicken the broth and add some rich yet unidentifiable flavor.
• 1/3 cup Jim Beam (or other cheap bourbon) - Note that the alcohol will mostly cook out over the next two hours and I have a theory, as yet unproven, that the alcohol helps extract bits of flavor from the tomatoes much the way adding wine to spaghetti sauce works.

Cook for another hour and test for spiciness. If it is too spicy, add up to 1/4 cup of bitter-sweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate bar. Add a spoonful. Stir and let it cook until the chocolate melts in and reduces the effect of the spicy factor in the chile. If it is not spicy enough, add some cayenne pepper 1/8 tsp at a time. Chopped jalapenos work to kick up the heat too but I don't think they taste as good.

This can cook for 3 or 4 hours if you need to fit it to your schedule but be sure to cook on low for at least a second hour on low to let the spices merge properly.

Serve in bowls. Optionally top with grated cheddar cheese, Frito corn chips, oyster crackers, corn bread or hot flour tortillas.