Easy chili recipe
First to harass anyone that hasn't signed up for my blog giveaway. You should totally sign up to win. Plus isn't it great to get to know me by asking questions? Yeah that's what I thought...off you go to enter and ask me a question.I'll wait right here till you come back.
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Now onto cooking. Seeing as this blog is already so random in all of its awesomeness, I realized I should toss in some cooking. I love to cook a lot. It is yet another thing I learned from my mom. She had to learn for survival (her mother was an awful cook). Actually both of my parents cooked and luckily it trickled down to me. I was also lucky enough to get my mom's recipe book, which I constantly use. Along with all of the things I grew up with, I love adding new recipes to my repertoire.
One such thing is a fairly quick to make chili I found in my Fine Cooking magazine. I will warn you, while I love getting their magazines, their website is a slight mess. It's not super easy to search, so if you don't know exactly what you are looking for you'll have issues.
Also, I have molded this into something of my own. I have added more or played around with things that go into the chili, which I will mention (my additions will be in blue).
Onward to food and pictures!
Serves about 4
{Photo from FineCooking.com}
1 14-1/2-oz. can diced tomatoes (I use a second can for later because I like the chunks of tomato in my chili)
1 medium chipotle plus 2 Tbs. adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce) (you can add more or less depending on how much heat you like)
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. 85% lean ground beef (you could easily switch beef for turkey)
Kosher salt
1 large red onion, finely diced (any onion will do)
1-1/2 Tbs. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe avocado, cut in a medium dice (by no means a must, but very yummy)
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Put one-third of the beans into the bowl of a food processor, along with the tomatoes and their juices, chipotle, and adobo sauce. Process until smooth and set aside.
Heat the oil in a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven or similar heavy-duty pot over medium-high heat until it’s shimmering hot, about 2 min. Add the beef, season with 1/2 tsp. salt, and cook, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat, until it loses its raw color, about 3 minutes. Transfer the beef to a large plate using a slotted spoon. Add half of the onion and 1/4 tsp. salt, and cook, stirring, until it begins to brown and soften, about 3 min. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the chili powder and cumin and cook for 20 seconds. Add the remaining black beans, the puréed bean mixture, and the beef to the pot and simmer for 10 min., stirring frequently. Add half of the lime juice, half of the cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. If the chili is thicker than you like, it may be thinned with water.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the remaining lime juice and onion with the avocado. Season generously with salt and pepper. Serve the chili topped with the avocado mixture and remaining cilantro.
I like to have all of the canned items out and ready to go. It means less trips for me. I also have extra tomatoes, beans and tomato sauce for those "just in case" I need to add more moments.
The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that I fine in the Mexican food aisle of our grocery store.
Peppers in the adobo sauce. I was getting tired of only using a small amount of the can and then it getting tossed, so I froze what was left in a Ziploc bag for later use.
Always wash your beans, the are coated in a slick liquid that has no place in this yumminess.
The beans, tomatoes and peppers all blended together.
Browning the meat and cutting it up. I love using a wooden spoon for this. You need to cut into the meat so that you don't end up with a block of meat.
I use whatever onion I have. This time I also had extra spring onions, so I tossed those in. At this point I always cut extra onions for the topping, doing that means one less step.
I start cooking down the onions in the leftover fat from the beef, though sometimes I do need to add a little extra olive oil.
There is no rhyme or reason for what you toss in when the onions are done. I usually start with the whole beans to warm them up a bit.
Next in is the meat for me.
Then the blended mixture goes in. At this point I gauge if there is enough beans and tomatoes for my liking, if there isn't, then in goes another can of each.
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