Free The Animal

Expressing Our Primal Genes for Lean Health, Vitality and Attractiveness

Texas Style Chili

October 18th, 2009 · 15 Comments · Food Porn

Two substantive posts on line for tomorrow and Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime, here's Friday night's dish.

It was a 2.5 lb. cross rib roast; trimmed, cubed, and then browned pretty well in the cooking pot in a big tbsp of lard and another of bacon drippings -- medium heat. Once browned, I added 5 ladles of my beef stock, a couple of cups of water, about 6-7 tbsp chili powder and 2 tbsp Thai massaman curry paste (just enough to have people go: "what's that?!"). These were all rounded tbsps. Then: one cap of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, 4 cloves of fresh garlic crushed & chopped, a medium onion, chopped, 3/4 of a green bell pepper, cubed, and about a cup of chopped crimini mushrooms.

Chili in the Pot
Chili in the Pot

Be patient. Once I brought it all to a boil, it's about an hour covered on your smallest burner low. Then, take the cover off and increase heat --if needed -- until you get a light simmer. This will reduce and thicken the sauce -- essential.

I was very pleased because inside of the first hour, the roast was already tender enough to break apart with a fork.

Chili for three
Chili for three

It was garnished with -- get this! -- FAGE Total yogurt. Way better than sour cream.

Chili  No Beans
Chili No Beans

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15 Comments so far ↓

  • PeeJay

    As a Texan, I’m proud that you resisted the urge to screw up perfectly good chili by adding beans, which is a common mistake that most folks make. I have to say, I’ve never eaten chili made out of roast. We get chili grind. (Think ground beef only really thick instead of little strands of meat). Looks pretty good, I must say. I’d never eaten chili with sour cream until I ate some at Chili’s one day. I’ll have to try it with the yogurt. I’ve got about 8 lbs of chili in the fridge that we made last week. Next time, I’ll try your version. Thanks! (oh and my mom sometimes adds bloody mary mix in her chili…weird).

  • Steve Carter

    Looks very nice. I have to ask though, is American chili powder different to what I, in the UK, would call chili powder? If I used 7-8 heaped tablespoons of cayenne pepper in my chili it’d be pretty much inedible (and I love eating chili peppers, I grow Nagas as a hobby). Anyone know what sort of peppers go into your chili powder?

    • Richard Nikoley

      Steve:

      It’s a mix of some various things, cayenne being one of them. It’s a very “Texas” chili flavor and can be hot or not to hot. Add extra cayenne to boost the heat, which is what I normally do. In this case, however, I used the Thai massaman curry paste to boost the heat. Gives it that darker look, too.

      • Steve Carter

        Thanks Richard.
        I’ll try to pick some up next time I’m over there.

      • Mike

        American Chili Powder is usually a mixture of various ground chili’s, oregano and cumin. Sometimes onion powder or garlic powder is added

  • Rafi Bar-Lev at Passionate Fitness

    Man,

    I have to become a better cook. I can’t even imagining eating that kind of dish on a weekday right now.

  • Jessica

    Wow. That looks absolutely delicious!

  • Randomman

    loving the blog, i’ve been looking for some good recipes to boost my own routine.

    checked your before and after shots, pretty impressive matey :)

  • Phil Tucker

    Great. I had to go and read this post just before lunch. Those photographs are amazing. My mouth is now completely awash with anticipatory salivary action. I think it’s now officially lunch time :P

  • Steve

    Another way to use the massaman curry paste is to use about 1/3 a cup (a small can of the thai curry paste) with a shoulder or chuck roast in a crock pot. I added a few cloves of minced garlic and ginger and after 6 hours it was ready to go. I think it would also make a nice stew if I added coconut milk.

  • Mike Gruber

    I’ve got a batch of this cooking right now. Thanks for the inspiration. :-)

  • Kat

    Aloha! If you like this, I have an excellent paleo chili recipe as well on my website!

    http://paleomama.com

  • justin

    So how would this be without the garlic and onion? Yeah I know, crazy to leave out but our 5 mo old still finds these two ingredients to cause a lot of gas (a la breastmilk).

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