Jakes Three Burn Chili Recipes

THREE BEAN BURNT END CHILI

Steps:

• Heat a smoker or grill to medium.
• Season fleshy side of the brisket with kosher salt.
• Sear the fleshy side of brisket on the grill, close to the coals for about 10 to 15 minutes. Flip the brisket and lightly sear the fatty side until a red-orange crust is formed. Raise the brisket to a higher level of the grill and continue to cook over indirect heat until fork tender. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board.
• Separate the flat and the point with a sharp butchers knife. Remove the point while still hot and put the point and the flat back on the grill, taking care not to scorch the meat. Continue cooking until most of the fat has rendered or liquefied, about 15 minutes. Remove it from the grill and trim off the fat and any burned portions. The grain in the point runs in several different directions so care needs to be taken when slicing. Slice the meat on an angle, between 3/8 to 1/2-inch thick, until the entire point is sliced. Begin chopping those slices at a 90 degree angle to attain the desired size chunks of the points. Put the chunks into a pan and add about 6 ounces of Woodyard Original Sauce, per pound of meat, then put the pan back on grill. Leave uncovered to allow it to smoke until a glaze is formed on the surface. Remove the pan from the grill and allow meat to rest and set, about 20 to 30 minutes. Ready to add to the Three Bean Chili.
• Put the beef into a large roasting pan and put it on the smoker. Smoke the meat until a firm crust forms, roughly 40 minutes. Remove it from the grill and add it to your favorite skillet over medium heat to begin browning.
• In another large skillet over medium heat add the diced onions. Add the chili powder, cumin, cayenne and paprika. Cook until the mixture is well blended, then add the smoked ground beef. Brown the mixture until fully cooked. Add the black beans, red beans and red kidney beans with diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes to a large stock pot and mix well. Add the ground beef mixture and stir until combined. Cover and simmer for roughly 1 hour.
• Ready to serve up!
• Serve the chili as a base with the desired amount of burnt ends on top and add your favorite fixin's, such as corn chips, sour cream, jalapenos, red onions and/or shredded cheese.

JAKE'S THREE BURN CHILI

Steps:

• Brown beef, drain.
• Add the the next nine ingredients.
• Stir and simmer for 45 minutes.
• Add the remaining four ingredients.
• Simmer for another 30 minutes.
• Enjoy.

THREE BEAN SLOW BURN CHILI

Steps:

• In a large pot over medium heat, combine garlic, onion, habanero peppers, chili beans, kidney beans, black beans, diced tomatoes with green chiles, salsa, chili powder, black pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer.
• While soup is heating, cook beef in a large skillet over medium heat until brown. Drain excess fat, then stir beef into soup pot. Simmer, covered, until flavors are well blended, about 1 hour.

ZIPPY THREE-BEAN CHILI

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add mushrooms and peppers; cook and stir 3 minutes longer or until vegetables are almost tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the water, tomatoes and taco seasoning. , Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Add beans; simmer 30 minutes longer. Sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese.

HOW TO MAKE CHILI

Steps:

• A great chili rests on two foundations: its protein, and the peppers that flavor it. It is, essentially, a stew. We'll get to the chiles, but we'll begin with the protein. If you're cooking with meat, look for a cut high in fat and flavor. If you're cooking with beans, find a sturdy variety: A pinto or navy bean is an excellent chili bean.Chuck beef, from the steer's shoulder, is excellent for chili. But you can also do very well with brisket and short ribs, and there are fantastic chilis made of lamb and pork shoulder. Whatever protein you use, cut the meat into 2-inch cubes, or, if you'd like to work faster or simply prefer the texture, use ground meat. In much of Texas and at the butcher shop anywhere, you can get your meat coarsely ground, which just about splits the difference between cubes and ground. But you can also use a combination: Some cooks even like to use a number of different cuts, combining stew meat with ground. Consider between ¼ and a ⅓ of a pound per person. It should yield enough fat to flavor your chili well. Whatever you choose, be sure to fry some bacon in the pot before you get started, and then set it aside to crumble into the chili later in the process. There are those who swear by ground turkey chilis or who make the dish with chicken. Be careful when doing so, however, so that the meat does not dry out. Consider between ¼ and a ⅓ of a pound per person, supplemented perhaps with a few strips of bacon to help keep everything juicy. Or use chunks of dark meat from the richer, fattier thighs, or even duck.Farm-raised or wild-shot game - venison, buffalo, moose, marsh duck, goose - often bridges the distance between red meat and poultry: It delivers powerful flavor whether it comes from the field or the sky. Cook between ¼ and ⅓ pound per person, substituting some ground beef or lamb if the game is very lean. As with turkey and other lean cuts, you'll want to add some fat to the proceedings, for flavor and lusciousness. There are those who consider beans in chili to be an apostasy. But beans in chili can be delicious and, indeed, are an easy way to "stretch" a chili from a dish that serves 6 to a dish that serves 10 or even 12. (Figure something in the neighborhood of a cup of cooked beans per person.) Pinto beans make a wonderful addition to a beef chili, and white ones are beautiful with poultry and lamb. Some may cook only with beans, using chiles and spices to deliver big flavor into each legume. It is a good idea, in this case, to think about increasing the variety of chiles used, and to consider increasing the level of spice as well. A base of sautéed onions and garlic, heated through with oregano before adding chiles and beans, is a fine way to launch a vegetarian chili. (Take a look at Melissa Clark's recipe for a vegetarian skillet chili, if you want a starting point - or a finishing one.) All will defend their decisions as the only permissible ones. And do you need to cook the beans from scratch? You do not, unless you want to. Chili should never be a project.
• Traditional Texas chili is made with meat, chiles and little else. What kind of chiles and what form they take is a matter of some debate. Best in our view is a mixture: fresh jalapeños, dried anchos and pasilla powder. Top row, from left: Dried ancho chiles, dried New Mexico chiles and fresh jalapeño peppers. Bottom row, from left: Dried chipotle peppers, dried pasilla peppers and fresh poblanos. Some varieties of chiles are hot, some sweet and some smoky. Some are dried and toasted and ground together; others are toasted and then simmered in water or stock before being blitzed in a blender or food processor or fished from the pot and discarded; still others are used fresh. As a general rule, you'll want to add any chili powder early in the process, preferably after you've seared the meat and as you're cooking down any aromatics. But whole chiles can be added along with the cooking juices, and pulled out before serving. The world of chiles is broad, but here are a few varieties that work especially well in chili. There was a time when some of them were hard to find, even in large urban supermarkets. That is no longer true, save perhaps in the case of the delicious Chimayo. In which case, as ever, the internet can provide. Poblano: A big green pepper that is not too punchy in its heat. As poblanos ripen, the fruit reddens. Ancho: A dried, ripe poblano pepper becomes an ancho chile, sweet and smoky, mild to medium hot. Pasilla: This is a dark chocolate-brown dried pepper of moderate pungency, and brings great deepness of flavor to a chili. Jalapeño: Arguably America's pepper, this fiery little fruit can provide real zip and freshness when added to chili. When it has been smoked and dried, a jalapeño is called a chipotle. Chimayo: A New Mexican pepper of extraordinary richness, which when dried and ground brings a deep redness to all that it touches. If you can't find any Chimayos, note that any pepper from the state of New Mexico, usually labeled a "New Mexican" chile, is a worthy substitute, fresh or dried.Confusingly, chile powder and chili powder are two different things. (More confusingly, The Times has conflated them for years.) Chile powder is just dried, pulverized chiles. Chili powder, on the other hand, is a mixture of dried, ground chiles with other spices, and it helps bring a distinctive flavor to the dish that bears its name. HOMEMADE CHILI POWDER: Come up with a good recipe for chili powder, and it will give you some of the confidence to call your chili the best you've ever made. To follow the Texas restaurateur Robb Walsh's recipe, toast three medium-sized ancho chiles in a pan, then remove them and allow to cool. Do the same with a ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds. Seed the anchos and cut them into strips and then process them in a spice grinder with the cumin seeds, a big pinch of Mexican oregano and, if you like, a shake of garlic powder. Use that in your chili, and then store what's left over in a sealed jar. Use it quickly, though. It grows stale fast. STORE-BOUGHT CHILI POWDER: Chili powder is, like the dish it serves, a Texas tradition, most likely dating to the arrival in the state of German immigrants who thought to treat the local chiles as their forebears did the hot peppers in Europe, drying and grinding them into a kind of New World paprika. Eventually other spices were added - cumin and oregano and garlic powder, for instance - and now each chili powder you see in a store is slightly different from the last. For some, using chili powder in chili is anathema. They don't like the uncertainty of knowing what the mixture is going to taste like in their stew. They don't trust that the powder is fresh. They believe the resulting chili won't have layers of flavors. For many others, though, chili powder is a delicious timesaver, particularly if they've found a chili powder they like. If you do find one, use it a lot. The critics aren't wrong about the freshness.
• You've gathered your protein, and made executive decisions about your spices. It's time to make the chili. Making one calls for layering flavors into the stew, deepening each as you cook. Start by browning the meat in batches, then removing it to rest while you sweat onions, garlic and peppers, in whatever form you're using them, in the remaining fat. If you're making a vegetarian chili, start with the sweat! Then comes liquid, which will deglaze the pot and add flavor, while also providing a flavorful medium in which to simmer your meats or beans. In her Texas-style chili (below), Julia Moskin here at The Times taught us to use dark beer along with water and some canned tomatoes, but you can use plain stock instead, or a lighter beer, or more tomatoes in their juices, or a combination, according to your taste. Some like to add body to their chili by adding masa harina to the stewing liquid, or a sliced-up fresh corn tortilla that will dissolve in the heat. Julia allows for both in her recipe, which we've taken as our standard, but we encourage you to use the information you've gleaned here to make chili your own. The dish is very simple: browned meat and chiles, or chili powder, or both, simmered until tender. Everything else is up to you. Add a few dried peppers to simmer alongside the protein, and if you're cooking beef or game, consider adding a tab of dark chocolate to help deepen the flavor of the sauce. Then bring the heat to the lowest possible temperature until the protein is, as the saying goes, fork-tender. That could take 30 minutes if you're working off coarsely ground beef. It could take four hours if you're working with venison or a big clod of beef. If your stovetop can't go lower than a fast simmer, cook the chili in the oven instead, partly covered, at 325 degrees. Or use a slow cooker set to low, and keep a good eye on it after four hours or so. Fish out the dried peppers, and you're ready to eat. Once you've aced Julia's master recipe for Texas-style chili, you can explore other chili styles, whether it's a vegetarian chili with winter vegetables, Cincinnati-style chili, chili-gumbo of south Louisiana, Pierre Franey's lamb chili with lentils or his turkey chili. All reflect and celebrate America's ever-changing relationship with the dish.
• The chili's done, but don't eat it yet. As with gumbo and beef stew, chili is a dish that benefits mightily from an overnight "cure" in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in a low oven when you're ready to eat, and top it with any or all of these fixings. • Chili gains a lot from the bright punch of alliums: Chopped onion and scallions are a great bet. As are avocado slices, or, one better, homemade guacamole. • Cut through the dish's richness with the clean flavors of fresh chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves. • Or if a lightly vinegary finish is more your speed, top your chili with pickled jalapeños or red onions. • To mellow your chili's heat, pair it with a spoonful of sour cream, or some plain Greek yogurt. • Shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack can add a mellow saltiness. • And, lastly, consider the fried egg. A worthy companion, it can even make last night's chili dinner into a hearty breakfast.• Pour the chili over rice, whether white or brown; spaghetti, as a nod to the Cincinnati style; or warm and creamy grits. • Or top it with corn or tortilla chips, crumbled Saltines, oyster crackers or Fritos. (Or, put the chili on top of those Fritos for a Frito pie.) • Serve it with warm tortillas or one of many kinds of cornbread.

PRESSURE COOKER CLASSIC BEEF CHILI

Steps:

• Heat the oil in the pressure cooker (see Tip) set to the sauté function on high if possible. Add beef, spread it over the bottom of the pot over the oil, and let it brown without stirring for 7 minutes. Give it a good stir and sauté for 1 more minute, then use a slotted spoon to transfer it to a plate. Season meat with 1 teaspoon salt.
• Stir in onion, bell pepper, jalapeño, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in chili powder, tomato paste, and cumin, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in beef and any juices from the plate, oregano, tomatoes, beans and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, then cover and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. Let pressure release naturally.
• Stir in cilantro and a squeeze or two of lime juice, then taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with sour cream, avocado and pickled jalapeño if you like.

JAKE'S CHILI-SOUP

Steps:

• Stir tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, corn, vegetable broth, carrots, celery, onion, chili powder, and garlic together in a large saucepan. Place a cover on the pan and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook chili-soup at a simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
• Ladle chili-soup into 4 bowls; top each portion with 1/4 cup Mexican cheese blend and 1 tablespoon sour cream.