I’m lacking a fantastic chili recipe. What have you culinary experts got?

I’m not after any of this “super quick throw some random spices into a bit of mince and fry it off” chili, I want proper chili with big flavour!

Also opinions on what to serve it with? Rice, bread or something else?

mine goes something like this, changes every time I make it, but this is more or less the base:

fry onions and garlic, brown off yer meatballs or mince, add 2 tins of chopped tomato, then you can either ad some woster sauce/balsamic vinegar/red wine vinegar/red wine(which ever takes your fancy prefer balsamic myself) then chuck in some chopped chess nut mushrooms fresh basil, fresh chili(or proper chili powder, not that schwartz shite), make it as spicy as ye like then add in some lime zest and lime juice(lemon works just as well). let it cook for awhile and then salt and pepper it to taste, add shedloads of Parmesan cheese..

clearly It’s not tradiontial chili or bolognese, but tastes magic, I have it with spaghetti one night then rice the next.

This is my killer recipe

Spices:
1 tsb Coriander
1 tsb Cumin
2 tsb Paprika
1 tsb oregano
1 tsb pepper
1 tsb salt
2 tsb Coco Powder
1 tsb chili powder
1/2 tsb cayenne powder
1/2 tsb mustard powder
1/2 beef stock cube
1 bottle beer

Veges
1 med Onion
4 cloves garlic
2 sticks celery
1 cans of beans (I use kidney and black eye mix)
1 tin of tomatoes
2 tbs tomato paste

Meat
500g mince beef
or
my fav a few short ribs (jacobs ladder)

Method (mince or ribs)
fry up the onion, garlic and celery (all chopped fine) til transparent. Set aside. Brown off the meat and add to the onions. Add the rest of the ingredients except beans and simmer for a few hrs. For the last 1/2 hr add the beans. For the ribs – at the end pull them out and strip the meat off the bone and add back to the chili. Season to taste.

This is easily scaled and obviously add more chili to your taste or mix it up depending on what you have about. We also do this with chicken or turkey and even 100% vege by substituting the beefor more beans. I usually double it up to a kg of meat and 3 tins of beans and bung some in the freezer.

Optional for a smokey taste:
Add chipotle dried chilled or powder at the start or (dont flame me!) 1 tbs bbq sauce. Also can swap the paprika for the smoked variety. Serve with lime.

Serving suggestion.
In a dish, bed of rice, cover in chili, and cover in cheese & Jalapeno sauce and grill to get a nice grilled cheese topping. (think shepherds pie)

I challenge you to find a better one.

Firstly, I use pork instead of beef, and not mince either – stir-fry or casserole type pork or chopped up chops or steaks. Also, plenty of veg – onion, squash & beans, bit of sweetcorn. But mainly you want loads of flavours so ideally all of:
Chilli flakes
Cayenne pepper
Cumin
Fennel seeds
Cinnamon (not too much)
Smoked paprika (loads)
Finely sliced chilli peppers (fresh ones and dry Poblano ones if you can get them)

Start off with the onion & squash, get them lightly browned and softened nicely, and chuck the spices in on them. You can go pretty wild with them as long as you don’t put in too much raw heat from chilli flakes or cayenne. I like to put finely chopped chorizo in with them too, and get the oil and spices all infused. Loads of garlic too.
Fry off the meat separately to get it nicely browned. Bit of tomato paste and fry that a little too.
Chuck it all together with the sweetcorn, a couple of cans of beans (kidney, cannellini) and a can of tomatoes (it’s not a tomato sauce though, so go easy on them)
Simmer for ages, add more spices as necessary though they are better off early rather than late.

If you don’t have or want all the spice jars, then a ‘South West’ seasoning mix is a start.

I am with Ericemel on the chipotle! adds some awesome flavour to a chilli.
I always go with some chopped oregano, fresh of course, not your dried stuff. Tabasco do a little bottle of chipotle sauce, good stuff to use.

Serve with rice and a dollop of creme fraiche.

If you can get hold of some smoked garlic, that adds a really good flavour too.

This is very good

Brown a load of mince in batches, set aside.
Fry onions and chillies
Add mince, tinned tomatoes and a stock cube
Simmer for a couple of hours at least
Fry some peppers
Add peppers and grate some dark chocolate into pot
Taste and add salt / pepper / chilli / lime to taste
Garnish with chopped coriander
Serve with appropriate stuff

edit: chuck some drained kidney beans in with the peppers

Anyone tried this one with coffee in it?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/chilli-con-jamie/#6i3QReS8xks1MFUg.97

Best chilli ever –
http://www.homesicktexan.com/2009/02/more-precise-texas-chili-recipe.html

a variation you can do as well [ using any of the suggestions so far ] is to layer your chilli with wraps and put sweet corn and/ or beans in between and then bake in the oven – kinda like a chilli/ lasagne type thing .dead easy but llokks impressive.its a nigella lawson recipe if yoy want more detail.

The best thing about making your own chili is there’s no “right” answer – you can do it however you like it! I’ve found how you make it is more critical than the exact ingredients.

I add chipotle and dark chocolate – makes it very dark, rich & smokey. Also I always use chopped beef (never mince) as I slow cook it. Don’t add the beans until just before serving though; they only need to be warmed, not cooked to mush! And I make it very thick – can’t stand watery chili.

The best chilli I ever made took days.

1. Roast a rib of beef – 5 hours low and and slow.
2. Once cooled and rested, fork apart / shred the whole thing.
3. Make your chilli sauce: Onions, fresh garlic, peppers, fresh chilli, dried chilli, cumin, cinamon, smoked paprika, bay leaves, black garlic, beek stock, tinned tomatoes, oregano, thyme, very dark chocolate.
4. Once stewed, add the beef and kidney beans then slow simmer for an hour so.
5. Leave overnight, reheat.
6. Wear your thanksgiving pants.
7. Eat with rice, guacamole, cheese, wraps, salad, salsa, sour cream etc etc.

Anything else is just messing about.

forgot to add, chuck in a jar of sundried tomatos too! 🙂 and some cherry tomatoes as well, they take on flavour tremendously and explode in your mouth, which is sensational! 🙂

I may try this dark chocolate malarky next time now you mention it! 🙂

Cooked a chilli/lasagne hybrid last night. Testing it for tea tonight.
My tip for chilli is to add chopped chorizo in the mix.

I didn’t want to believe the chocolate thing, but just make sure its really dark. Not your average Bournville nonsense.

add chopped chorizo

Good call.

I’ve actually made a chilli over the weekend for tea tonight. Went with more veg than usual to use it up – onions,carrots, celery and a BIG red pepper all finely diced. Although my assertion that anything without a roasted rib of beef in it is just messing about, I do love high-veggie content chilli.

will do. 🙂

I use cocoa powder in mine – works well. Need to make sure you get pure cocoa powder not ‘hot chocolate’ powder.

I’m not after any of this “super quick throw some random spices into a bit of mince and fry it off” chili, I want proper chili with big flavour!

Loads of great suggestions above, and more below. I’d just add that you need to use enough salt and cumin, a teaspoon of the former and up to a tablespoon of the latter. If you do add chocolate (I usually do) make sure it’s dark, and don’t add too much. A couple of squares is usually enough.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/whos-got-a-good-chilli-recipe
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/proper-chili-recipe
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chilli-con-carne-green-peppers-surely
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/vegetarian-chilli-recipies-please
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/whats-wrong-with-this-recipe-homemade-chilli-sauce
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chilli-con-carnewhat-do-you-add-to-make-it-yours

After watching Kew on a plate with Raymond Blanc last week I cooked a big pot of this veggie chilli that was on it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bruno_loubets_bean_and_68770

Tasted pretty good last night!

Jimmy – next time try short ribs (jacobs ladder) rather than beef ribs, a heap more flavor and save the expensive stuff for a roast 🙂

I usually get 6kg at a time from here for £35 http://www.tomhixson.co.uk/british-short-ribs.html

Anyone tried this one with coffee in it?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/chilli-con-jamie/#6i3QReS8xks1MFUg.97

Made this yesterday with some slight amendments. It’s a favourite of mine. Will be eating it every night this week. Seriously.

Shin of beef for is the favourite for me. Diced & browned with onions and fresh chilli and then slow cooked in the oven in a big cast iron pot. Usually with with wine, beef stock and whatever is taking my fancy from the usual suspect along the lines of a cajun style spice mix. Most of the time I’ll also put chocolate in there (I second the advice about no going over board, it’s easy to make a sickly mess).

The gelatinous nature of the shin and the stock makes a really tasty “stew”. It should have all fallen apart in the slow cooking. I’ll then add some beans 20 minutes before serving and then some fresh corriander to serve.

Or here’s a slightly different twist:

http://lepetitoeuf.com/recipes/super-smokey-veggie-chilli/

Fresh chillies and chipotle paste.

Big on not going overboard with the spices. Quantities to suit yourself, but for me 1/2 lb mince, small tin paste, tin toms (maybe 1 1/2 tins), 3-4 cloves garlic, thumb sized grated ginger root, 3/4 – 1 chilli, no seeds, 1 -2 handfuls of pre-soaked kidney beans

fry onions, brown mince, add tomato puree, tinned tomatoes
Add chopped garlic, ginger and scotch bonnet chilli. Remember scotch bonnets are HOT so go easy and keep the seeds out. Simmer for 15-20 mins, add beans, then another 10-15 mins.
leave overnight in the fridge. scotch bonnets develop a lovely fruity taste if you can keep the heat to a tolerable level

Or same ingredients as above but with lamb shoulder not mince and everything checked on the slow cooker.

Has anyone tried making chilli with pulled pork? I was debating doing a pork joint in the slow cooker with a stock made up of everything bar the tomatoes and beans, then adding those for the last 30min on the hob.

As for normal chilli, whatever ingredients you like, and real meat rather than mince, and a long time in the slow cooker. And hom emade acompliments, guacamole, salsa etc, even on bad day hom emade stuff tastes infinately beter than anything from the supermarket. Although I’d disagree with one suggestion up there, lime should go in at the last minute before serving.

Got this for christmas 🙂

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mexico-Cookbook-Margarita-Carrillo-Arronte/dp/0714867527

Loving all these suggestions! I think the first one I make will be with mince (only because I’ve got that in the freezer) but then I’ll progress to brisket/ribs later. There’ll be no pork in my chili either, I’m severely allergic and it makes me break out with a serious case of religious guilt!

Marmite.

This recipe may well be buried in one of the sub threads previously linked. I use it a lot. If I’m making it for non-vegans I just chuck meat in after the onions, cook the meat in the onions for a bit and then carry on from there. In the case of it not being for 6+ people I’ll take a tin of beans out of the recipe aswell. It does make a LOT of chili… omnomnomnomnomnomnom… chili… mmmm

Thug Kitchen Chili

Vegetarian option (is also vegan if exchange the honey for sugar), invented tried and tested last month as the household Autumn Special:

-Sweet Potato and Lentil Chilli-

1. Dice: 2 onion, 1 medium/lge sweet potato, 1 green bell pepper, 2-3 fresh jalapenos, a big carrot, 4-5 cloves garlic, sauteé the lot in oil in big pan for 15 mins
2. Add 2-3 diced fresh tomatoes, stir and cook another 5 mins on mdm heat.
3. Add a tablespoon ground cumin, another one of red flaked chillies, handful of dried or fresh oregano, tsp mustard, teaspoon of brown sauce, salt and black pepper to taste, tin of toms, teaspoon of marmite or similar, tablespoon tom puree, level tablespoon of cocoa powder, half a can drained chickpeas, can drained red kidney beans, small can of drained sweetcorn and handful split yellow peas
4. Add hot water to make up sauce not too runny and cook for 10 mins until boiling.
5. In another pan add a cup of dark green lentils (ie puy) to a cup or two of water with two heaped tsps of veg stock powder (or cups of yr own chosen stock) , boil and then cook til soft. Add these to chili sauce, add a handful of rice and cook for twenty minutes. Add more water as required.
6. Sweeten with a few spoons of honey and stir. Let stand awhile. Bob is your mothers brother! i think thats about it. Easy to modify with whatever. I’d use mesquite liquid smoke early on if I had it, but a good dessert spoon of smoked paprika works well as an alternative (add at step 3)

even after having added my own ^ recipe to the growing list of poncified anglo-stews with ‘chilli in the title, I have to admit to prefering the more traditional chile (Colorado) con carne. The important part being the two (ironically) often neglected ingredients – chilli peppers and meat. Worth hunting dried ancho chillies (or similar) – it’s just the way so-called Tex Mex food is best served simply and mega tasty. Go order some proper peppers online and get your burning lips around this beauty

PS – confession time -am a big chilli con carne fan, (my fave food) and first meal I learned to cook (mince, red kidney beans etc) was this, yet didnt try authentic sauce til in my 30s. A chile verde either. both of which made me fall in love with mexican cuisine. Nice chunks of steak with a very smooth, hot, simply spiced colorado sauce …. unbeatable, IMO)

Shim of beef is a great idea, and the cheaper ribs. Did feel a travesty pulling apart a huge rib for chilli but maaaan it was good. Now then…

After watching Kew on a plate with Raymond Blanc last week I cooked a big pot of this veggie chilli

I watched that and was distraught and disappointed.

1. Worcestshire sauce – from a chef of his calibre?
2. HP sauce – ditto (although at least he used Houses of Parliament and not some knock off).

If you use either of these in cooking, thats all your cooking tastes of. Chilli doesn’t need either and I love them both but not as seasoning – fry ups, cheese on toast, that kind of thing and nothing else.

For a great show stopper I make sourdough mini loafs and empty them out and use them as bowls.

Filling.com!

Fry off?

http://www.ukchillicookoff.co.uk/

I’m liking the idea of shin beef or lamb shoulder.

you can’t go wrong following one of Thomasina Miers recipes. That said, she often calls for rare ingredients and crazy amounts of prep. There’s a ‘simple, quick’ chili recipe in Mexican Food Made Simple that’s awesome.

I tried the dark chocolate last night btw, got some 80% stuff. Added a couple of squares, good call! 🙂