Chilli

Best quality mince you can get your hands on and really, really brown it.

If you can get kangaroo mince, give that a go. It’s superb.

My recipe. Note this is an intentionally mild base, I add actual chillies and/or pain to taste depending on target audience

That’s all stuff I’d regularly include in a chilli (maybe not the star anise) but did you put tsp where you mean tbs? It looks a bit under spiced to my jaded palate – I mean, what use is 1/2 tsp of coriander leaf in what looks like 2kg-ish of chilli. That’s not even a garnish!

Remember, don’t overdo the Carolina Reapers… 😉🥵😱

 did you put tsp where you mean tbs? It looks a bit under spiced

Personal preference to an extent, I’m not a huge fan of coriander but I appreciate it adds a flavour note even in small amounts.  I didn’t say but these are all dried herbs, using fresh yes I’d switch tbsp for tsp.

As I said, that’s my baseline recipe, I build that first then tweak / iterate from there.  You can always add more stuff, it’s harder to take it out.  It’s easy to end up with one dominant flavour, eg smoked paprika is a key spice in many chillies but go in too large with it and you wind up with taco filling.

You should try the star anise, it really lifts it.  Just don’t leave it in there for two hours!

.

Rarely have mince in our chilli now.

Much prefer adding a tin of Lidl’s mixed taco beans and a tin of their kidney beans both of which have sauce.

use kidney beans in chilli sauce

use pinto beans or turtle beans. Kidney beans are OK, but not as good as pinto beans.

as for using kidney beans in chilli sauce, much better to make a delicious chilli sauce of your own imo.

1 tsp mild chilli

Why? the rest of the spicing/herbs looks good.

Most of a jar of chilli paste is a recently discovered thing, very good in vegan chilli sin carne. (Pendantry levels @Cougar can be proud of)

After decades of experimenting making my own (and a variety of Brit recipes and pseudo-Mexican chilis) I finally chanced upon what the Tex-Mex chef’s use! ie a good ready-made seasoning mix.  Flavour and depth has now improved tenfold! Wouldn’t do anything else.  You can’t (practically) purchase it in the UK  but you can easily make your own clone batch.  Here:

https://www.liveeatlearn.com/homemade-chili-seasoning-mix/

Some good reading there re the basics of a flavourful chili.  Lower down the page there is an (excellent) 10 min veggie chilli recipe (into which you can bung some meat if you must):

https://www.liveeatlearn.com/vegetarian-chili-recipe/

Thank me later!

PS, I can’t emphasise enough to use good quality ingredients when making the seasoning. Especially invest in quality smoked paprika.   I recommend El Avion brand and order it online.  Deep vivid red and smoky.  Nothing at all like basic supermarket rubbish.  Also use premium tin tomatoes (San Marzano etc)  or at least the Deluxe Lidl/Aldi ones. I most often also chuck in a few chopped fresh toms.

It may seem like a faff to get all the dried seasoning ingredients to make the mix, but once you’ve done it and stored in a masonry jar then a great and authentic chili/‘bowl o’ red’ is the easiest thing to have cooking on the stove in 10 minutes.

You can’t (practically) purchase it in the UK  but you can easily make your own clone batch.

I did this with fajita seasoning.  My fajitas were so popular with The Girl – they ask like every other week, “can we come for fajitas on Sunday?” – that I got bored of measuring out a 1/4tsp of this and a 1/2tsp of that, and made a big jar of the stuff.

Air fryer for scale:

I find smoked paprika adds a lovely flavour, the brand I like the most is La Chinata

I forgot to make clear, in the US, chili powder is a blend of spices, not one specific dried and ground chile.

So in order to make the chilli seasoning mix that I posted above, first make the chili powder that goes into that chili seasoning mix!  For the gods’ sake don’t be using tablespoons of extra hot powdered chiles! When making your own chili powder simply adjust the amount of cayenne (or  whatever dried hot pepper you use (I use bags of Asian supermarket ‘Rajah’ brand extra hot red chilli)  for heat/taste.  Authentic Tex Mex chili powder additionally calls for preparing your own from dried ancho chiles (and optional guajillo, chipotle etc)  but you don’t need to go!to such lengths

There are lots of US chili powder recipes online.  Here’s a basic one:

2 tablespoons paprika
½ tablespoon cumin
½ tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon oregano
¾ teaspoon cayenne (or any dried hot pepper)

@Cougar

Yes, masonry jars make everything better!  I’m always scanning marketplace and charity shops for more.  Nothing beats having not to fish out disintegrating/splitting plastic bags of long-gone-tasteless ingredients.  Cooking a curry used to make our kitchen and selves look like the Holi festival!

“Pass the turmeric?

(digs into tub for packet) Here!…(splitPOF!)”

”gargh!”

“mustard seeds?”

”Here…oh.  (spaf!) Now rolling under the fridge, wait… 😗”

RE chili non/con carne recipes, I found refried pinto beans make a great thickener if required. Gran Luchito (sp?) bags of it are handy.  Use a tablespoon or two to thicken, then turn the rest of the bag into a great refried bean dip using garlic powder, cumin powder, salt and soured cream or creme fraiche. Mix into tub and heat in microwave.

I mostly standardised on reusing Tesco spice jars.  They’re a good size (they clear the drawer lip by a fraction of a millimetre) but the lids aren’t quite as airtight as I’d like.

What goes best with chilli though…..?

Plain rice?

Chips?

Baked spud and cheese?

For me, chilli needs a good kick of actual chilli, not flipping Jalepenos. I like to add a couple of Scotch Bonnets’eses.

(Now I really fancy chilli and spud….)

What goes best with chilli though…..?

Plain rice?

Chips?

Half and half.  It’s the English way. 😁

What goes best with chilli though…..?

Depends!

For me depends on weather, hunger and mood.

1. Decent plain corn chips (no Doritos nonsense), homemade refried bean dip, some cheese dip, home-made proper guacamole. (Sometimes will make cheesy nachos for ultimate scoffage)

or

2. Cheesy jacket spud and creme fresh.

or

3. Garlic bread and bowl of side salad with the chili in it’s own bowl.

or

4.  Steamed Basmati rice (since finding a microwave rice cooker this happens more often)

Drinks?

Chilled lager or a glass or three of bold red to match the strong flavours of the chili.

I stopped using mince and go for braising steak instead. Brown the heck out of it in a cast iron casserole dish, take it off the heat and chuck in a load of onions along with cumin seeds. Once the onions are cooked, add some stock and a load of whatever spices you’re using.

Bang it in the oven for a couple of hours until the beef is semi tender. Take put all the meat and roughly shred it.

From there on, it’s the same as normal chilli. Add the beans and a second helping of spices. Chipotle paste as already mentioned. A spoonful of marmite, some soy sauce and Worcester sauce. A tiny bit of fish sauce. No tomatoes. Back into the oven for 45 minutes or so. Don’t go too mad with the stock. You don’t want too much liquid.

What goes best with chilli though…..?

Plain rice?

Chips?

Baked spud and cheese?

Bread and butter – for dipping.

I like the chili to be runny, tomatoy and not too hot.

Ideal for dipping bread and butter into. And when its dried from the dipping, spoon on some onto the bread and eat it sandwich style.

Why are you all storing your spices in brick/stone jars ?

Are you all mixing up with Mason jars ?

To make it worse, I think I meant kilner jar…

Buy some dried Chipotle and Ancho chillies online or from your local mexican food vendor (we have a great one here in edinburgh). Soak a couple of those in hot water (not much) until soft and the water is kinda dark red. Chuck that in at the same time as your tomatoes.

Not gonna lie, MSG is also a weirdly delicious addition to chilli.

To make it worse, I think I meant kilner jar…

That’s the name I was searching for.  I had Klein in my head, but that’s those weird bottles with only one surface, like a Mobius strip.  Fun fact, one of the main manufacturers of those is former hacker Clifford Stoll.  I have his book here and it came with a flyer for them.

Anyway, you’re right.  They’re both brand names, Kilner is the clip-top, Mason is a screw-top where the middle disc and the screwy edge are two separate parts.  I think.