A chili bar is a perfect snowtime, daytime crowd. While I have a few other chili recipes on this blog, I am going to duplicate the lovely chili I made yesterday for my cousins. Our oven broke the night before, so I was glad I had chosen a chili that cooked on the stove and in the crockpot.
Here's the chili seasoning I used for my large crockpot that was filled near full of cooked chili when done. It's hard to use less ingredients because I add three cans of beans to the pot, so I used all of this batch of seasoning.
Homemade Chili Seasoning (Click on the link)
Instead of any sugar, I used 2-3 T of nice, dark New England maple syrup. If you don't have tomato powder, don't worry about it, but I use it in soups and chili for added flavor. I used all the other ingredients and actually added 2 tsp. of Cocoa-Chili powder and Chipotle Chili powder. The chili had a nice bite. Note that Masa Harina is fine ground cornmeal and you should shop for it in your International Latin foods aisle. Corn meal, fine ground cornmeal, masa harina and corn farinah are different products made from corn. Here you are using it to thicken the chili and any of those products, including white flour, can be used.
If you make up a batch of three times the seasoning recipe, you will have enough for a few more big pots of chili when you are in the mood to make chili!
As in the other recipes on this blog, my chili is always a unique recipe. I add extra things sometimes. This batch included 1 pound of chopped beef that I buy at Aldi's - its cut up beef "perfect for Tacos." There are other beef cuts* you can use -find your best one from ground chuck to extra pieces of steak you find in your freezer. I also added a pound of ground sausage meat. I sauteed these both in a Dutch oven with 2 chopped medium onions and 4 minced cloves of garlic. Add the chili seasoning (the whole recipe) and stir to blend well. You can also add some diced multi-colored peppers, but I didn't this time. When the onions and garlic are golden and the meat mostly cooked, add 2 T. any kind of mustard and 2-3 T. of maple syrup. Stir. I then added the 1/4 cup of thickener (Masa, etc.) and let these flavors blend while the flour quickly cooks.
*Actually ground or shredded chicken, bison, turkey, pork and beef work well in chili. Experiment.
Note: You can do this in a hot crockpot, instead, but it is slower.
Because I was saving the chili to serve the next day, I continued to use the Dutch oven. You could transfer this to the crock pot as I did (refrigerating the Dutch oven over night). I cooked it in the crock pot for another hour or two before serving.
To the pot, add 2-3 cans of fire-roasted, diced tomatoes (about 12 oz each). Cook on high to blend all the flavors. Add some frozen fire-roasted corn and/or a can of white corn. Add one jar of Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Tomato-less Salsa, if preferred. It adds a nice sweet and spicy flavor. Add about 4 cups of beef stock or broth (you can substitute half the broth with beer!) to the pot and simmer. You can also add Better Than Bouillon and water, if you'd prefer. Add this point, add another small or large can of chopped Roma or Baby Roma tomatoes or tomato sauce (especially is you did not use tomato powder in the chili seasoning.
Add 1 can each of drained and rinsed beans: black, Cannellini, and red kidney. You could add hominy (I have before, and garbanzos or Great Northern beans and pinto beans - depending on your preference of meat to beans.) That would be a lot of chili! I simmered this in the large Dutch oven for about an hour - in the crock pot cook on low for up to 8 hours.
The next day, or an hour before serving, add another cup of Masa or corn flour to the very hot chili and stir well.
Serve with bowls of sour cream, chopped cilantro, chopped chips, sliced black olives, chopped avocado and shredded cheese. I also served with a bowl of tomatillo sauce (that broke the oven. But the good news is that 36 hours after, with the oven unplugged, it started up just fine.)
