Merritt's chili.
Merritt's chili.
Without beans it’s beef and tomato soup.
I’ll very heartily vouch for the Merritt’s Chili recipe. I’ve made it about a half dozen times now.
Best damned chili I’ve ever had. It’s bursting with flavor. Everyone who’s had any of mine loves it.
Now I am sitting here angry; looking at the skinless chicken breast for dinner. I would prefer chili, but nooooooo.
I make really good pinto beans. My wife makes really good chili (beef, not ground, and dries and grinds her own chilies). But beans and chili are two separate things. She also doesn’t put chocolate or pineapple or spaghetti or any other nonsense in it.
Really nicely done article.
Colorado Pork Green Chili
19 lbs deboned pork shoulder, cut into 5/8 cubes
5 quarts freshly roasted/de-skined/de-seeded Big Jim green peppers
5 quarts crushed tomatoes and juice
2 quarts chicken stock or chicken broth
7 large white onions
18 medium shallots
1/2 cup minced garlic
Small amount of hot Pablano or other hot peppers to add extra heat
~2 TBS (slightly rounded) fresh ground Tellicherry blackpepper
~1 TBS (level) unrefined sea salt (if salt is needed)
Slice pork shoulder into 5/8” cubes and heavily brown. Deglaze pan with a bit of the chicken stock.
While pork is browning, use food processor S-blade to mince peppers, shallots, garlic and onion. Then stir that plus canned tomatoes and chicken stock into large stock pot, bring to boil and then cook in preheated oven at 325 degrees for one hour.
Then stir in cubed pork and cook in oven for 45 minutes, stir, cook for another 45 minutes, stir and then cook for 30 more minutes. Pork should be cooked but still a bit firm to chew, so total cooking time will vary.
Remove from oven and cool stock pot with ice water. Water and ice will have to be changed a few times if kitchen sink is used for cooling.
Once cooled, chili can be packaged for freezing.
Start at the beginning. Red chili has wildly different characteristics depending on where the field is located. New Mexico red chili is the best IMHO. The largest growing region is around Hatch, NM then extends from Hatch south to Las Cruces. The second region is around Albuquerque. Both of these are irrigated lands along the Rio Grande river. They each have distinctively different flavors but both are good.
Hit these valleys in the fall harvest season and buy your years supply by the pound. Roadside vendors setup chili roasters for the harvest season. A marvelous chili is grown in the Chimayo valley north of Santa Fe. About the only way to get this chili is to by farmer run roadside stand or more likely the back of a pickup truck. Farmer grown and roasted. Very dark red color and a smokey flavor.
My recipe was learned from my grandmother. Simple and good. Hamburger, tomato sauce, white onion, garlic and red chili. Pinto beans are cooked on the side and added to the pot about an hour before serving or at serving time directly into the bowl. Drain and rinse the beans and ladle into the chili. BTW, you can brighten up the flavor by adding a small amount of diced green chili while cooking.
For the liquid, I didn't figger this out until I was older and in college. Towards high school age, curiosity hit me on why was there often beer in the refrigerator and neither of my grand parents drank the stuff. Finally I caught grandmother and my aunt putting Coors in the chili, no water! Now I knew the secret ingredient.
Using roasted red chili is not a simple thing of just adding a fixed amount. You can tailor the heat level by how much is added but keep in mind that the heat level varies from one crop year to another and one field to another. When your adding chili to the pot, avoid adding to a level that is “hot”. As the chili simmers, it's going to get hotter and you run the risk of going nuclear. Add chili until there's a small bite then stop. Calibrate your next pot of chili to add a little more or less roasted chili to get perfection. Lol…
Back to the beer - This is important. First, you don't want to run out of beer. When topping the stew pot or crockpot with liquid, only use beer. Be sure to reserve some beer for yourself and any nosey helper. Later when the liquid needs topping up, it's always one for the pot and one for the cook. Can't go wrong. From start to table ready, I budget 5-6 hours. This length of time lets the flavor bloom nicely.
I like spicy chili, but I add about a tablespoon of sour cream or greek yogurt to my bowl before eating. Mellows it out.
Best chili recipe I’ve ever made was Paul Prudhomme’s Texas Red from his book Seasoned America.