Recipe: Competition Grade Chili

I decided to test out a few tricks to my standard chili recipe this weekend so that I could give a great recipe and how to guide to a friend of mine that will be cooking in a chili cook-off next weekend. And since the ex is out of town this weekend, it’s a good time to have the kitchen all to myself.

Ingredients:
6 strips of bacon – diced
4lbs of Beef Round Bottom Roast
1 can of Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of chipotle sauce
1 can of chipotle peppers in abobo – seeded and diced
1 habanero peppers- seeded & diced
1 large white onion – diced
1 head of garlic – diced
2 tablespoons of ground cumin
2 tablespoons of chili powder
salt to taste

Step 1:
To start this chili right, freeze the beef round. That’s right – toss it in the freezer for 2-3 hours until it’s slightly frozen. Then remove and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Lay the slices of beef out on a tray and return them to the freezer. After another 1-2 hours, remove them and dice into 1/4 inch cubes. This method makes for more uniform cubes of beef, which creates a better texture when all is said and done.

Step 2:
Dice the bacon and cook until crispy. Preserve the bacon grease & set aside the diced bits of bacon to garnish the chili with later. Sauté the diced onion, garlic and habaneros in the bacon grease until soft. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Step 3:
Once the bacon and veggies has been cooked, you can begin cooking the cubed beef in small batches. As you work through the batches of meat, preserve all of the juices.

Step 4:
Once the beef has been cooked, combine all of the ingredients (beef, onions, garlic, habaneros, canned sauces, seasonings, remaining juices ect…) into the pot – stirring with each addition to make sure it all gets spread around evenly. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for another 2-3 hours or until the beef is tender to the point of melting in your mouth.

Final thoughts: Cubing the beef into 1/4 cubes definately helps the consistency and even though the measurements for the ingredients are similar to those that I’ve used before, the flavor seems to pop a bit more and I think that’s due to the smaller cuts of meat – allowing more sauce & seasonings into each bite. A few tweaks to be made – needs more heat, so next time around I’ll add 2-3 habaneros. Other then that, this recipe will be going into the chili competition – we’ll see if it wins!