Texas Chili - KTK via Boerne

Beef, bottom round, 4 lbs trimmed, can be any tough red meat
Pork, lean, 2 lbs, trimmed
Onions, 3 large Spanish, 8 medium, yellow
Peppers, chili, at least 7 different kinds, fresh, dried, frozen, sweet, hot, etc., seeded and deribbed, several handfulls, hotness to taste
Garlic, 1 head, peeled
Cumin, 4-5 tsp. whole, 2-3 tsp, powdered or more, to taste
Tomatoes, 2 -3 pounds, with juice
Chocolate, semisweet or bitter, 1 - 2 oz (or mole sauce)
Beer, 1 bottle
Masa harina, 1 cup

This makes a lot of chili, enough for 24 - 30 people and will require two 10 qt. pots for cooking (or a 20 qt pot).  The recipe does halve nicely. Cut meat into 1/4 to 1/3 inch cube (do NOT grind).  Brown meat in oil or lard.  Add finely chopped onion (or pureed in a blender) and cook until transparent.  (If the meat does not brown, but rather just loses its redness, that's OK, but not quite as good).

Soak the dried chile in hot water until soft.  Drain, reserving water. Deseed and devein all the peppers and put into food processor with all the garlic and enough of the tomatoes and their juice so that the whole processes down to a fairly smooth paste.

Add peppers and garlic to the pot with the meat, together with the rest of the tomatoes and the chocolate.  Optional: Add a stock cube or two. Cook for 1 - 2 hours until the meat is tender.

Mix masa with water (or reserved pepper water if more bite is needed ) to form a thin paste.  Briskly stir the masa into the chili and cook for 30 minutes longer.

Tastes better the next day.

For 2001 we will add chicharonnes to the mix!

The above recipe is really just a starting point.  For the 2001 Solstice Party we made 4 1/2 gallons.  We used about 
12 pounds of lamb shoulder
8 pounds of beef bottom round 
5 pounds of pork loin
5 pounds of onions 
1/2 gallon homemade chicken stock
1gallon of dried peppers, soaked, stemmed and seeded
2 cups fresh peppers, roasted, stemmed and seeded
2 heads garlic
1/2 cup cumin
4 28-ounce cans tomato puree
1/4 pound semisweet chocolate
4 cans chocolate stout
8 cans regular beer
2 cups fine corn meal (used instead of masa harina, which we didn't have)
3 limes, juiced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 bag chicharrones, ground in a food processor

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