Mo' Chili Mo' Problems

More Chili? More meat?

This blog would never look like it, but I actually eat pretty light during the week. Maybe I'll get around to posting some healthy recipe soon. In the meantime, we have PORK ON PORK chili. That's right. Double dose of the good stuff. This would anger those cattle country Texans and make absolutely no sense to Carolina pork territory. Barely made sense to me, but it turned out great.

What you need:

- 1.5 lbs chorizo. If you can, get fresh chorizo (whole foods has it). It is ideal. You can take the casing off and it will brown up well. You want a fresh sausage that will crumble up. We like crumbles.
- A Few strips of bacon. Or an entire package. Has anyone ever complained about TOO MUCH BACON?
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 1 Pepper. I used a green poblano for a smoky flavor, but you could use whatever.
- 1 Spicy Pepper. I used a serrano, again use whatever you can find.
- Garlic: a few cloves
- Black beans: 1 small can (14oz).
- Diced Tomato: 1 large can (28oz)
- Tomato Paste. If you have it, this helps thicken the chili. If not just cook the chili longer or use less broth.
- Chilis in Adobo Sauce: 1 small can, you will find these if you look hard enough most stores have them. Cut them up.
- Corn: buy some frozen corn, use your judgement on how much you want.


Seasonings:
- Chili Powder. I used a mixture of Ancho Powder and New Mexican Hot. Just use something that smells good to you. Of all the seasonings, use the chili powder the most. This is chili after all.
- Cumin. Maybe a quarter of the amount of chili powder you use.
- Paprika. Same as cumin.
- Garlic Powder. As much as you want. A little extra garlic never hurt nobody.
- Hot Sauce. A few drops.
- Spicy mustard. A few drops.
- Apple cider vinegar. A few drops.


First things first, be good to your meat. Brown it up nice. Throw in the bacon and chorizo and get your kitchen smelling insane. Is it time for breakfast? Or am I at a taqueria? Maybe breakfast tacos? Brain overload.

Chorizo Bacon Heaven

Once the meat is browned up nice, take it out and set it aside. Try to keep yourself from eating all of this amazing meat mixture before it meets its impending death by chili. Try saying My Meat Meets Me Monday 5 times fast to past the time.

Now it's time for the base. Get your onion, garlic, and peppers in the pot. Let them cook down nice for 5 minutes.

 Once they have cooked down, add in your beans, corn, chili in adobo, and tomatoes. Then bring the meat plate back to the party. Let them all hangout together for a few, before blasting them with your seasonings.

 Flavor Dust

 Cornstorm

After the seasonings have cooked a bit with your mixture, you can start drowning this innocent party in beer and broth. I used about half a beer along with about 14 oz chicken broth. Let this heat up, start bubbling, and then put it on low for as long as you want. After a couple hours all the ingredients will be melded together in one big happy chili family.

This was part of a larger chili cook off this weekend with a few friends. The pork chili is in the bottom right. Props to Mitchell and Lauren on the chicken chickpea chili at the top!

Have more chili ideas? Chickpea cheeseburger?! Send them my at gdonheiser@gmail.com