Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, January 26. 2024

Mommys of America cheap 'n easy winter supper #16, Chili

No matter where you live in the US, Chili is a basic warming winter supper. Always good for lunch too on a ski slope with a cold beer or two.


Chili is like barbecue: every region and every locale has developed its own favorite version. Up here in Yankeeland, it's usually made with ground beef and lots of beans. It's OK, not great. Something like this recipe. That's what moms and dads here make.


That's OK after a morning of skiing, but that is a pic of a real Texas Chili: no beans and no ground beef. 3/4 of a cup of hot chili powder?!? Well, I did that. Unless your Mom was a Texan or a Mezzican-American, you probably never had it like that. Stewed meat in tomato, garlic and hot pepper sauce, hot and spicy as hell - or as spicy as you decide to make it.


Got a deer on hand? Venison is as good, or better, than beef. Use your least-desirable cuts because it tenderizes during 7 hrs. in the crock pot. Best to kill the deer first too, if you know how to do it. Bow, spear, or AR-15. Who cares?


You can put the pure-meat version on rice if you need to. Never on brown rice. My rule of thumb: Nothing on brown rice. It took the Asians thousands of years to make rice white, so why go backwards? At Maggie's HQ we use Costco's tasty Basmati but there is nothing wrong with Uncle Ben's.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 16:19 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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That (Texas) style is almost exactly how we (wife & I) do it here - and w/venison it is - man, I'm getting hungry just thinking @ it. Did a huge batch this past year along w/home made tortillas/chips, and had to institute a strict "3 return trip" limit on the entire party. This year I'm making more (6 ~ 8 gallon range), and will have Beer, a decent Red, and plenty of Cigars...
#1 Jess on 2013-01-17 19:24 (Reply)
An add for either version;

Find Dried Ancho chiles, seed and devein, soak in boiling water until soft, grind in a blender with the soaking liquid to a puree. Cook in some olive oil 5 minutes and add to the pot.

Use a meat mixture of ground pork and beef 50/50.

add 20 or so raisins if you want sweetness.

Substitute cinnamon and nutmeg for the cumin and oregano.
#2 dorf on 2013-01-17 20:02 (Reply)
Take my wife, please, along with her brown rice fetish. I feel like a cow chewing cud when when it appears. I will say though, that she makes a mean turkey chili.
#3 XRay on 2013-01-17 21:06 (Reply)
That Costco's tasty Basmati is the best rice I have ever tried. now when I try any other rice its like what the hell is this stuff?
Its what rice is supposed to taste like but seldom does with any other rice. One thing about cooking it is it is absolutely fool proof. Simply measure out 2 cups of water to every cup of rice. add some salt and a little butter . Heat til its boiling then turn the heat off, cover the pot with a lid and wait 20 min and you have the perfect rice. I usually make a large amount then store in the fridge to mix into other dishs later.
#4 sam goodman on 2013-01-17 21:26 (Reply)
Down here in Texas, you're cheatin' if you use chili powder. Grind your dried chile pods! And if you buy ground chili meat at H-E-B (look it up) you'll get a coarse ground mixture full of fat and gristle, which the oldsters LOVE.

That said, I like my chili of the Yankee ground beef and plenty of beans persuasion. The family insists that theirs be ladled over rice, but I line my bowl with chunks of cornbread and make sure there's a nice layer of cheese on top. Deeee-licious.
#5 Ruby Lennox on 2013-01-17 22:02 (Reply)
Check out Homesick Texan. She has a great recipe for Texas Red. In fact, all of her recipes work for me on the Texas food front. Those Mexican Hot Dogs!

She lives in your neck of the woods too.
#6 Mike (Link) on 2013-01-17 23:25 (Reply)
I used to make venison chili often when I lived back east as I always had a steady supply of meat courtesy of my dad. It never lasted long. Not terribly hot but certainly rich and savory thanks to almost an entire bottle of red wine. I usually used a Ravenswood Zin or a good Bordeaux. Paired with some maple cornbread, what could be better?
#7 KellyM on 2013-01-18 11:48 (Reply)
The Texas style recipes are also good with ground beef cooked in a little bacon grease. We do that sometimes when nobody wants to go to the store for chuck.

Ditto on the venison as well. Would do that all the time if I was a better hunter.
#8 altered states on 2013-01-18 12:54 (Reply)
I do about 4 lbs of ground beef plus beans at a time. I have started adding 12 ounces of lean, thick-cut smoked bacon, thinly sliced and cooked in the skillet before anything else, leaving in the drippings. Adds a world of flavor.

We put out Fritos to serve it over.

I'm going to try replacing half the beef with pork or lamb. That sounds really good.
#9 Cleve Watson on 2024-01-26 18:24 (Reply)
"Chili" comes in a wide variety ways- all meat to all beans, Cincinnati three ways, whatever. To each their own.

I've cooked pinto beans with any number of seasonings, and found them all good. I use cheapo WalMart pintos, and found that to get them soft enough, a Middle Eastern trick of adding baking soda to the soaking water ( 1 tsp) helped soften them.
#10 Gringo on 2024-01-26 20:16 (Reply)
Adobo sauce provides a much richer, smokier taste than chili powder, FYI. Warning: can get hot! Delicious!
#11 Ann K. on 2024-01-27 07:54 (Reply)
Texan here and that picture sort of looks like my chili, although I don't put sour cream on it and definitely don't put green onions on it. (Cajun food, yes. Chili, no.) I just made a batch of it this week and had a little left to freeze.

I buy a cheap cut of roast (chuck or shoulder), cut it into bite sized pieces, season it with salt and pepper and then sous vide it for 48 hours. Saute chopped onion and garlic then add the meat, juices, chili seasonings, tomato puree, and water. Cook until the flavors mingle. Thicken with a past of masa and water.

We serve it over Fritos or tamales or, my late father's favorite, scrambled eggs. I've never seen chili over rice in Texas.

I don't object to beans but I don't put them in my chili.
#12 T Migratorious on 2024-01-27 08:02 (Reply)
Dorf is right. Don't use all that chili powder, and if you use any make sure it's ground chilis and not chili seasoning.

You want 15-20 dried chilis for a 10 qt batch. Chili isn't all about making it as hot as possible. You want a variety of peppers.
Some sweet, some hot, some smokey and savory. Soak in hot water, drain, and turn to a paste. That's your base for everything else.
#13 jack walter on 2024-01-27 09:16 (Reply)
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#13.1 Alyson Swiger (Link) on 2024-01-27 21:44 (Reply)

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