Without.....It Ain't Real Chili

OK, Midwesterner's don't have the market cornered on Chili Recipes (although I am getting attached to their 'style').
What needs to be in Your favorite Chili?
I need to see/taste/smell--
Beans (pinto&kidney),
Meat (chunks not ground)--
Sauce (and here's where the individual tates seem to vary a lot-- Spice- I used to love superhot chili, now I tend to be looking for the broader flavor rather than the heat.
Peppers- More Jalopena than Habenero
Onion and Garlic- LOTS of it

OK What's Missing?

Well, when you put beans and sauce into it it's certainly no longer chili.

Sheesch, Michael, Without the beans and sauce all it is is spicy beef and broth !

Anybody look up the definition of chili????

Websters says that Chili is a condiment made from the dried fruites of the chili pepper !

OH well ! I like it with lots of kidney beans and lots of meat. My favorite is with chunks of beef instead of ground beef. I like lots of spices too ! Then served on rice, with shredded cheddar cheese spread on top ! and a good healthy amount of Texas Pete hot sauce !

Goes well with an ice cold beer !

Some notes about chili I've had in my travels --

I now live in Green Bay. Up here, they put spaghetti in their chili (uh-uh, now way, fuh-ged-aboutit). A couple of the places here even tout it as being "Texas" Chili (if it has pasta in it, it ain't Texan).

Beware of chili in Canada!! I tried some chili in Saskatchewan some years back -- it tasted like the base was primarily ketchup.

Believe it or not, the best lunch-counter chili I ever had was in the early 1970's at the snackbar in the downtown YMCA Newport, RI.

When I make a batch at home, beef cubes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, jalapeños -- and Italian sausage.

Masa Harina for thickening, a little cocoa powder for that depth of color & flavor, homemade chili powder, mix of sausage & beef, onions, tomatoes sometimes, diced carrot (gives a little sweetness). Serve with frsh chopped onion, shredded cheese & sour cream, chips on the side. Prefer it Texas style - no beans but will put some in if pressed.

I'm gettin' like you in my old age, although I still like my chili to bite I crave the broad bold taste.
I figured out over the years that the bite is better achived through the right fresh peppers in moderate amounts rather than get heavy on the spice like cayenne.
Always saute your veggies then add your browned meat. Add half your spice mixture ( New Mexico chili powder, cumin, oregano and paprika)This helps bring out the flavor. Then build your "sauce" with a good tomato sauce, a couple cans of Rotel tomatoes and peppers and a small tomato paste. Add a tablespoon of Cocoa and believe it or not, a half can of coke. Add the rest of your spice mixture and thin it up with water if you like it soupy. Cook it about an hour and ignore the Texan's and add some beans (I prefer red beans over kidney), put in a good amount of cilanto, cover and Cook another hour and serve with peanut butter and honey sandwiches to dip and soak up the chili juice.

Sorry, forgot to tell you to add diced Red Bell Pepper as a veggie ingredient. Red.....never Green.

MATCHSTICK MAN: Green Bay? Have you been to Chili John's? I just moved to a new house right around the corner from their West coast site. It was so adorably quirky how they dumped 2 cups of oyster crackers loose over my takeout order like confetti. I noticed their menu says they invented "the original small oyster cracker in the early 1900s"

Chili without beans is sloppy joes. Never eat it the same day as the flavours resolve each other in the fridge overnight. I also find chili powder like curry powder, it needs a good long cook or you taste the powder.

Chili to eat as a meal must have beans! Chili for a dog or a Frito pie must not!

I'm from Texas and I never understood why "real" chili had no beans.But the recipe I grew up with and still use has no beans.
My momma's (she's from Texas too) recipe was : Ground chuck (we po' folk) browned, with onion, garlic and cumin. Then add tomato sauce and tomato paste. Let simmer. Dish up in a bowl with some grated chedder cheese on top and serve with salted crackers. Mmm good.
For a vegi meal eliminate beef and add pinto beans. Very good with corn bread or corn dodgers (hot water corn bread).

quote:

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Originally posted by Maynerd

I'm from Texas and I never understood why "real" chili had no beans.But the recipe I grew up with and still use has no beans.
My momma's (she's from Texas too) recipe was : Ground chuck (we po' folk) browned, with onion, garlic and cumin. Then add tomato sauce and tomato paste. Let simmer. Dish up in a bowl with some grated chedder cheese on top and serve with salted crackers. Mmm good.
For a vegi meal eliminate beef and add pinto beans. Very good with corn bread or corn dodgers (hot water corn bread).

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He's invoked his Momma. Now come on, gents--take off your hat and say "Yes 'm."

If memory serves me correctly, if your recipe has beans in it, you are automatically disqualified from competing in the International Chili Cook-off.

hawkeyejohn, in the CASI (Chili Appreciation Society, International) competitions, you are correct; chili with beans will NOT be judged. In ICS (International Chili Society) sanctioned events, they allow anything.

Well let see...It needs to have BEER with a side of....BEER, to be considered chili in my book. As for the purest "real chili has no beans" all I can say is...do you also cube you meat into 1/4" cubes :). IMO Its kinda wierd, considering that a lot of the time the CASI stuff would probably loose a lot of the non-pro events. Its like its evolved into its own category of "contest chili" not a bad thing (to stress the sauce as the major factor) just something intresting. I do like the fact that the CASI ppl require winners to publish their recipes, so we can try them out.


Anyways, I like:

-Beans
(assortment of meats, with varying flavors and textures, I think this and a well seasoned sauce is the key to really good chili)
-Bacon
-Chirazo sausage
-Hot Italian sausage
-ground beef
-cubed stew type meat
-Anything leftover from my smoker
-BEER
-Whole tomatos
-Chiplote peppers
-Whatever fresh chilis I can get my hands on
-Garlic
-Fresh ground cumin seeds
-whatever else I feel it needs

TO ME...chili has to be served over rice. something my grandma got me started on as a kid, don't know where she got this but she was raised in south louisiana, guess nothing is considered strange down there.

quote:

Originally posted by rumbelly

Chili without beans is sloppy joes. Never eat it the same day as the flavours resolve each other in the fridge overnight. I also find chili powder like curry powder, it needs a good long cook or you taste the powder.

I agree 100% with rumbelly.

Besides, CASI is based in Texas. The reason they won't judge chili with beans in it inTexas is because that would make the flavor too "complicated" for them. It's a rare case where one's environment truly does alter intelligence.

Honestly brian, there is no reason to be insulting.

In my opinion it's not chili unless it has Gebharts chili powder in it. It is still a Texas based company that has been making chili powder since the late 1800's. And NO beans.

That is not to say you cannot have beans WITH your chili and cornbread, but we take our Pinto bean cooking as seriously as we do our chili.

Just cook a pot of Pintos along with your chili and layer them on your cornbread with chili.

Lard. Diced or coarse ground chuck. Dried chile(ancho, New Mexican, or whatever kind you like). Masa harina. Garlic. Salt. Cayenne. Cumin. Oregano.

THAT'S IT! NO tomato, no onion. Beans on the side only. Saltines a must. Topped with raw onions, jalapenos and cheese.

Simplicity itself.

quote:

Originally posted by rumbelly

Chili without beans is sloppy joes. Never eat it the same day as the flavours resolve each other in the fridge overnight. I also find chili powder like curry powder, it needs a good long cook or you taste the powder.

To each their own, for me chili with beans is soup. beans on the side is ok, but not for me.

Dearfolk,
I note that nobody has thusfar mentioned the Illinois version, always spelled "chilli." Does this have to do with chILLInois, or perhaps with chILLIcothe, which is a city in Ohio - and also one in Texas? The most famous brand of this is Ray's Chilli from Springfield; there is also another famous one from Collinsville, I believe it is.
And what about the New Mexico spelling, "chile?" This is not pronounced as in Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe," where Mama says "Chile, what's happent to yo' appetite?" As Our Gurus The Sterns report in a visit to those parts, "Eating chile in New Mexico reminds you that chiles are indeed a vegetable." (Correct my phraseology if necessary, folks.)
I can take or leave beans in chili, but leave out the textured vegetable protein!
And - one more thing - no decent chili/chilli/chile is soupy. Soupy goes with Sales, not with chili. I like mine nice and thick, and often add just a drop or two of Tabasco(R) - but always AFTER I initially taste it.
Wishing Bowlfully For A Baleful Right Now, Ort. Carlton in Athens, Georgia.

Brand me a heretic but I agree with ORT completely...To the point that if the product in the pot remains too thin and soupy, we will add a can of refied beans to thicken it a bit. I haven't reached the point where I must have pasta(Mid-west) or rice(Cajun) in the bottom of the bowl. Thick is good,and BBQ scraps make great flavoring. Putting the BBQ edges and brownies into the chili for hours (or days) in the 'soup' will soften the toughest of meat.

Well I tend to be non-traditional...Maybe in some respects more like some of the New Mexican recipes. I usually use cubed chuck or some type; onions; lots of ground chile (I usually grind my own from dried New Mexican chiles); cumin; crushed tomatoes; fresh chiles roasted and peeled; red bell pepper also roasted and peeled; fresh cactus pads occasionally, cut into strips; salt; pepper; bacon or bacon fat; sometimes red wine; sometimes red beans. The cactus-nopales(?)-adds a nice crunch and adds a thickening agent it seems.

All this talk about chili. I'm drooling already. My wife fixes chili with and without beans. I'll eat it either way, although I prefer it without beans in it. I like pinto beans on the side. And I'm in total agreement with Ort about the thickness of the concoction. It can't be too thin or it's soup, not chili.
As far as the Chili Cook-offs in Texas go, the no beans rule has nothing to do with "taste confusion" or level of intelligence. It has everything to do with tradition.
Vaya Con Carne

I agree with jdg. I always add a jar of nopalitos-----it really adds character to the chili. Cubed beef and cubed pork shoulder in mine, fresh chiles (serrano and pasilla) as well as chili powder and a beer based broth. Lots of garlic, cumin and onions. Masa too for thickening------seems to be better than flour. Serve it with fresh cilantro on the side----yum!

I prefer chili without beans. I have nothing against the taste of beans, even in chili it tastes fine - but I am just more enamored of a true Texas bowl of red served with beans on the side and unsweetened cornbread for crumbling/dipping. Purists won't even add tomatoes in any form. That's a little too pure for me, though. I like beer in my chili, though again purists will scoff. I also have been known to pour several shots of cheap bourbon (no need to waste the good stuff) into a batch of chili with several squares of unsweetened bakers chocolate. If anyone wants to try their hand at a nice Texas style chili with no beans, let me suggest that they make whatever recipe they are comfortable with, but use cubed beef, and subsidize it with ground beef. In other words, let the ground beef be your stretcher/thickener as beans would have been. I am sure you will appreciate the flavor of all that beef, and by all means make a pot of beans on the side if you miss them. Personally, I don't like commercial chili mixes. Most are too salty and don't have enough heat or flavor. I use pure ground new mexican red chile, cumin, and a little masa harina and salt. I also like to throw in a handful of whole jalapenos. No need to dice these, they will break apart and heat your chili if long-simmered for several hours. For a smoky variant, substitute chipotles in adobo for the jalapenos. The latter goes especially well with bourbon and chocolate.

quote:

Originally posted by kangolpimp

I prefer chili without beans. I have nothing against the taste of beans, even in chili it tastes fine - but I am just more enamored of a true Texas bowl of red served with beans on the side and unsweetened cornbread for crumbling/dipping. Purists won't even add tomatoes in any form. That's a little too pure for me, though. I like beer in my chili, though again purists will scoff. I also have been known to pour several shots of cheap bourbon (no need to waste the good stuff) into a batch of chili with several squares of unsweetened bakers chocolate. If anyone wants to try their hand at a nice Texas style chili with no beans, let me suggest that they make whatever recipe they are comfortable with, but use cubed beef, and subsidize it with ground beef. In other words, let the ground beef be your stretcher/thickener as beans would have been. I am sure you will appreciate the flavor of all that beef, and by all means make a pot of beans on the side if you miss them. Personally, I don't like commercial chili mixes. Most are too salty and don't have enough heat or flavor. I use pure ground new mexican red chile, cumin, and a little masa harina and salt. I also like to throw in a handful of whole jalapenos. No need to dice these, they will break apart and heat your chili if long-simmered for several hours. For a smoky variant, substitute chipotles in adobo for the jalapenos. The latter goes especially well with bourbon and chocolate.

I like this, kango, it sounds good. The only thing I would change is instead of New Mexican Red, I would use ground Ancho.

quote:

Originally posted by hawkeyejohn

quote:

Originally posted by rumbelly

Chili without beans is sloppy joes. Never eat it the same day as the flavours resolve each other in the fridge overnight. I also find chili powder like curry powder, it needs a good long cook or you taste the powder.

To each their own, for me chili with beans is soup. beans on the side is ok, but not for me.

Heard this before and still trying to figure out this logic. What does your chili get more watery when you add beans for some reason? And how many soups have beans??

Personally I don't get either extreme. Long as it's good chili and doesn't have a TON of beans, who cares?