Get Your Grill On

Chili is one of my favorite foods, because it’s an over-the-top combination of meat and spice that warms the soul. During the winter months, I find myself craving chili almost every day. It’s easy to make, it’s a good way to use up leftover smoked meats and it’s a great excuse to drink beer.

The great thing about chili is that there are no rules. You can make it with beef, pork, chicken, veal, lamb, turkey, buffalo or venison. You can use sliced meat, chopped meat, ground meat or sausages. You can even (gasp) make it without any meat at all. I’ve tried them all and I’ve liked most of them—yes, even vegetarian chili. There are arguments, to be sure. Beans or no beans? I say no beans, but if you serve me a chili with beans, I’ll eat it. My wife and I are in complete agreement on the beans issue, but she likes it chunky enough and dry enough to eat with a fork, while I like more of the meaty broth to go along with the meaty chunks. How hot is hot enough? How far from the basic meat and chili powder should you stray? Should you eat it straight or with onions and cheese? There are no rules.

I’m a no-rules guy who’s also a no-recipe guy. Sure, I’ll read them, but only to get ideas, not follow them to the letter. So in that spirit, here’s a version—not a recipe—of a of a chili my wife and I made recently.

The foundation of any chili is the meat. Here, I’m using ground beef, ground pork and leftover sliced brisket.

Whenever possible, I like to combine different meats to create a variety of flavors and textures. Ground beef and ground pork may seem to have the same texture raw, but when cooked the pork adds a silkiness you can’t achieve with beef alone. The brisket, to be added only after the other meats have been cooked, adds another dimension entirely. I like to chop half of it finely so that it blends with the rest of the meat. I’ll chop the other half (choosing the pieces with the most bark) into larger chunks that will stand out. The larger chunks get added toward the end.

The brisket is supplying some smoke, and so is my first secret ingredient: onions I smoked a week earlier (I’d use some sausage too, but they’re gone). Whenever I smoke meats, I’ll smoke extra items I can use in stove-cooked dishes down the road. Adding onions to the chili during cooking may be taboo to some, but I like one small onion, finely chopped, per pound of meat.

I’m a huge fan of cumin, and I’ll use it quite liberally in some of my rubs and chilis. Buying cumin as whole seeds and grinding them as needed is the way to go. Just as with fresh-ground coffee, you’ll release more of the flavors this way. I probably should have pan-toasted the seeds before grinding for even more flavor. If you’re using cumin as a secret ingredient to add some depth to the chili, a teaspoon to a tablespoon for every pound of meat is good. To really taste it (but reveal the secret), go for a little more than that.

The chile (spelled with an “e”) powders. Here I’m using three parts ancho (not much heat, but a sweet, mellow flavor), two parts generic dark mix and one part New Mexico chiles (a little more heat). I’m a heat freak, but I’d rather go for flavor than heat in the chili, allowing each guest to customize the heat level later using hot sauce. I’ll prepare some bowls super hot, and for other bowls just enjoy the ancho and cumin flavors.

The next secret ingredient is chocolate. Just a little will add some complexity. I also used a small can of diced tomatoes, some salt, pepper, garlic powder and a good dose of paprika.

A common secret ingredient: beer. I only used half a bottle for three pounds of meat, but I’ve had some chili where you can really taste the beer.

It’s starting to become chili.

I would have liked to cook it longer to let the meat break down a little more and the flavors marry better. But since time was tight and there are no rules, we ate it before it spent an hour in the pot.

The first bowl, with no accompaniment other than hot sauce. There was no way that barky piece would not wind up in my bowl.

My second bowl, pictured at the beginning of the article was topped with sour cream and cilantro.