Texas Style Chili

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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Richard Nikoley

I started writing Free The Animal in late 2003 as just a little thing to try. 20 years later, turns out I've written over 5,000 posts. I blog what I wish...from diet, health, lifestyle...to philosophy, politics, social antagonism, adventure travel, expat living, location and time independent—while you sleep— income by geoarbitrage, and food pics. I intended to travel the world "homeless," but the Covidiocy Panicdemic squashed that. I became an American expat living in Thailand. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances. ... I leave the toilet seat up. Read More

15 Comments

  1. PeeJay on October 18, 2009 at 18:01

    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).

  2. Steve Carter on October 19, 2009 at 04:13

    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 on October 19, 2009 at 08:52

      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 on October 20, 2009 at 01:12

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



      • Mike on October 23, 2009 at 17:07

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



  3. Rafi Bar-Lev at Passionate Fitness on October 19, 2009 at 14:39

    Man,

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

  4. Jessica on October 19, 2009 at 21:31

    Wow. That looks absolutely delicious!

  5. Randomman on October 20, 2009 at 00:38

    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 🙂

  6. Phil Tucker on October 20, 2009 at 09:22

    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 😛

  7. Steve on October 20, 2009 at 10:18

    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.

  8. Mike Gruber on October 20, 2009 at 19:02

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

  9. Kat on November 11, 2009 at 16:34

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

    http://paleomama.com

  10. justin on January 5, 2010 at 13:27

    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).

    • Richard Nikoley on January 5, 2010 at 13:47

      Well it’s pretty spicy anyway. Should be OK. You might add more bell pepper and/or add in some celery.

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