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Tony’s He-Man Chili
6 slices bacon
1 pound hot sausage (Louisiana or Italian)
1 pound lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Louisiana hot green pepper (or Jalapeño), diced
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seeds
2 tablespoons chili powder
3 cups Roma tomatoes
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup Burgundy wine
1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans
2 (15 oz.) cans small red kidney beans
Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning
Brown bacon in large Dutch oven. Remove, crumble and set aside. Slice sausage into one-inch pieces and fry in bacon fat until brown. Remove and set aside with bacon. Pour off excess fat and fry ground beef. Drain and set aside with other meats. Pour off excess fat from pot. Sauté onion, bell pepper, garlic and hot pepper over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in mustard, celery seeds and chili powder, simmering for 10 minutes. Mash tomatoes. Add mashed tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, Burgundy wine and meats to onion mixture. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer. Season to taste with Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning and simmer for 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Add beans with liquid and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Yields 10 servings.
LonePalm’s Commentary on Tony’s Chili Recipe
This makes an excellent Louisiana style chili which I prefer. It has a mild bite and is suitable for taking to church events where some people may not like a very spicy chili. You can always add fire but you can’t take it out. I like it served over rice with some green onion and hot sauce. I have been experimenting with this recipe for over 30 years now and use the following changes:
Mince the bacon before frying in a separate large frying pan on medium heat. This more evenly renders out the fat without burning it and saves the crumbling. Extra bacon NEVER hurts. Pour most of the bacon fat into the Dutch oven (about 3 Tablespoons) and allow it to cool. Continue frying the sausage on medium high. Pay attention. It’ll burn. Most of the time I use Hillshire Farms Polska Kielbasa or Louisiana Andouille (pronounced an-do-WEE) sausage or both. Chorizo works well. The Hillshire Farms Kielbasa was recommended to me by the head of the New Orleans School of Cooking so I'll accept that substitution. I slice it on a slight diagonal about 1/4 inch thick. When you are done you should have a thick, dark, sticky crust on your frying pan from the sugar in the sausage. This is called fond. Save it. Pour off any fat and add the crumbled hamburger. I usually use 1½ to 2 pounds. Cook on high until the moisture from the hamburger is almost gone. The fond and all its flavor will now be stuck to the hamburger. Drain and set aside. Add the garlic (I use 6-10 cloves) to the bacon fat and heat. This causes the garlic to release its flavor into the oil. Adding garlic to hot oil seals in the flavor. Sauté the onion, and peppers with about 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and about 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper. The salt causes the vegetables to give up their liquid quicker. Add the spices, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, wine and liquid from the beans. I also add two Bay leaves. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Add the meat. Beer and white wine make for interesting chilis, but the heavier red wines work the best. Salt, sugar, and alcohol are required to bring out the full flavor of the tomatoes. To increase the aroma, add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Very few people will be able to guess the extra ingredient.
You are, of course, free to add other things as you choose. There are a few things which should NEVER be added to a pot of chili on pain of losing your Man License. These would be Tofu, Pineapple, and Peanut Butter.
SpyNavy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
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Hmmm.
Louisiana Chile in Montana.
I’ll let you know how it goes with the crew.
.
Interesting
Thanx for sharing
Thank you for the recipe!
And extra glad you didn’t call for file’.
:: You are, of course, free to add other things as you choose. ::
For those that might turn askance from cinnamon, try adding 2-4 shots of espresso (RedEye Chili) or 3 tablespoons of dutched cocoa (Choco-Chili).
Recipe looks great. Heavy protein and light on the beans. My first thought was more garlic so your tweaks look great. Thanks for sharing.
Re Chili:
That sounds scrumptious!
ph
you had me at “bacon”
I helped with a family wedding shower last year where we served chili and cornbread. I experimented with different recipes. I wish I had known your recipe then. One of the variations was Martha Stewart’s recipe and she added unsweetened cocoa powder. It gave a deep and interesting flavor. I will try your concoction soon. But today, I am throwing together Wendy’s knock off recipe because I like it. It may be more of a soup than chili but I like it.
Please post your Reuben pizza recipe. Sounds yummy.
>>Season to taste Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning
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Hi LP, for moderate heat, could you give me a ballpark range of how much quantity to try at first? Teaspoons, tablespoons, measuring cups?
Thank you very much!
Mrs. K