Cowtown Chili Recipes

COWBOY CHILI RECIPE

Steps:

• Soak dried beans overnight in water. Use enough water to cover the beans by an inch or two. The next morning, drain the beans. Using a crock pot or Dutch oven, add the beef broth, the lard or bacon grease to the beans and simmer covered until tender. Depending on the age of the beans, this could take a 2-3 hours in a Dutch oven, or 5 hours in a crockpot on low.
• Once the beans are tender, start making the chili. Brown the meat in a large skillet. When meat is about half browned, add the onion and cook, stirring often until onion is starting to become soft. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. About 1 minute.
• Add the cumin and chile powder to the ground beef and stir till everything is coated. If it's not spicy enough add more red chile powder. The original recipe calls for 4 tablespoons. I used 2 tablespoons. It all depends on the heat of the chile powder and your heat tolerance level. Cook, stirring for about 2 minutes. When all of this is a nice deep red color, then add the tomato paste and water.
• Simmer gently for 15 minutes. You'll have a mixture that reminds you of Sloppy Joes. Add this mixture to the cooked beans (don't drain beef broth from the beans). Add two cups water and simmer for 15 minutes in a Dutch oven.. If you're using your crockpot, add the beef mixture and two cups water to the cooked beans and cook on low for 2 hours.
• Serve with garnish and cornbread. Garnishes can include chopped avocado, sliced jalapeno peppers, sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and cilantro.

SPICY COWBOY CHILI

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°. Remove papery outer skin from garlic bulb, but do not peel or separate the cloves. Cut off top of garlic bulb, exposing individual cloves. Brush cut cloves with 1 teaspoon oil. Wrap in foil. Bake until cloves are soft, 30-35 minutes. Unwrap and cool slightly. Squeeze garlic from skins; mash with a fork., Meanwhile, in a large dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast chilies on both sides until puffy, 3-6 minutes. (Do not blacken.) Cool. Remove stems and seeds; coarsely chop chilies. Place in a small bowl; cover with beer. Let stand until softened, about 30 minutes., In the same skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Brown beef in batches, adding additional oil if needed; transfer to a 6-qt. slow cooker. In the skillet, heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium heat. Add onions; cook and stir until tender. Add to beef., Stir in the remaining ingredients, mashed garlic and dried chilies mixture. Cover and cook on low until meat is tender, 7-9 hours. If desired, serve with cheese and jalapenos.

UPTOWN DOWN-HOME CHILI

Steps:

• Heat a deep, large skillet or a pot over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and the meat. Season it with grill seasoning and sear it up, browning and crumbling it, for 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer meat to a plate and return pot to stove. Reduce heat to medium- high and add another tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Add the mushrooms and begin to brown them before adding the other veggies. After 2 or 3 minutes the mushrooms will begin to shirk and soften. Push the mushrooms off to one side of the pot and add all the remaining veggies to the opposite side of the pot surface. Once the onions, celery, peppers and garlic have been working for a few minutes as well, mix the veggies with the mushrooms. Add the meat back, season with Worcestershire sauce, chipotle in adobo or chipotle powder and cumin. Add in beer to deglaze the pot, scraping up all the pan drippings. Reduce the beer by half, about 2 minutes. Add the black beans, tomatoes, stock and thyme to chili and simmer 10 minutes for flavors to combine. Taste to adjust seasonings. Top bowls of the chili with shredded smoked Gouda and finely chopped raw onions.

COWTOWN CHILI

Steps:

• Brown ground beef.
• Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
• Drain any excess grease from meat.
• Add remaining ingredients and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
• The longer you simmer the better the flavor.

COWBOY CHILI

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes or until pepper is crisp-tender.