Texas Chili

Texas Chili
Evan Sung for The New York Times
Total Time
About 2 hours 30 minutes
Rating
5(4,407)
Comments
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Chili tastes are highly personal, often inflexible and loaded with preconceptions — the political party of culinary offerings. “I don’t disagree with anyone’s chili,” Robb Walsh, a Texas food historian, the author of “The Tex-Mex Cookbook” and a restaurateur, told The Times. “If you are making a one-pot meal and you want to put beans in it, that’s fine. If chili is part of your cuisine, like Tex-Mex, there are other things you will want to do." This recipe is an amalgam of styles, with coffee and chocolate for complexity, hot sauce for kick and beans just because.

Featured in: If It’s Chili, It’s Personal

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings (about 8 cups)
  • 2tablespoons olive oil
  • 1pound ground bison or ground dark turkey
  • 1large onion, finely chopped
  • 112-ounce bottle of beer
  • 114½-ounce can diced tomatoes
  • ½cup strong brewed coffee
  • 1tablespoon tomato paste
  • ¼cup brown sugar
  • 1tablespoon chile sauce
  • 1tablespoon cocoa powder
  • Half a serrano or other hot pepper, seeded and finely chopped, or to taste
  • tablespoons ground cumin
  • teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
  • 1teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 215-ounce cans kidney beans
  • 115-ounce can cannellini or other white beans
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

431 calories; 11 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 31 grams protein; 1118 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat. Add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add the meat and sauté until browned, then transfer to a plate.

  2. Step 2

    Add the onion to the pot and stir for 1 minute. Take two large sips from the beer, and pour the rest into the pot. Stir in the tomatoes, coffee and tomato paste.

  3. Step 3

    Add the brown sugar, chile sauce, cocoa powder, hot pepper, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt and kidney beans. Return the meat to the pot. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour.

  4. Step 4

    Add the white beans to the pot and simmer over very low heat, partly covered and stirring occasionally, for 1 to 2 more hours. (Longer cooking improves the flavor.) Adjust salt and cayenne pepper as needed and serve.

Ratings

5 out of 5
4,407 user ratings
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Comments

I made this without the chile sauce. All the chile sauces I found in the supermarket seemed to be ketchup with high fructose corn syrup added. I looked for chile sauce recipes, and they were ketchup or tomato paste with Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Since two of these are already in the recipe, I simply added about half a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a splash of red wine vinegar. Tasted great to me, and the rest of the family ate it up too.

Even as a wary, southwestern neighbor of Texas, I think this is a fine recipe, but I, too, have a quibble with the beans. Mine, however, is not with the mere addition of beans but with the choice of kidney beans. I realize the tough-skinned, grainy kidneys probably were chosen in this recipe for their contrast with the softer, smaller cannellinis, but my preference for any bean in proximity to chili or chile always will be the toothsome, flavorful and inherently noble pinto.

Like most of the recommendations said, I halved the brown sugar and cocoa portions, but also replaced the cayenne with ancho chili powder and added 2-3 teaspoons of chipotle tabasco and sriracha. It left the chili with more flavor but not much of a kick, though that was the intention since a few of the individuals I was cooking for cannot handle any type of heat.
Across the board reviews said that it was the best chili they've had. Thanks very much for the recipe.

Best chili I've ever made! Had to use chili powder instead of sauce because it's what I had, same with a chipotle pepper. Also, had to use root beer as we had friends who do not eat anything containing alcohol. Sweet and spicy! So easy and so delish!

Make double Double tomatoes, double beer Worcestshire and vinegar instead of chile sauce Brown the venison hard Pinto instead of kidney Simmer plenty

Wonderful flavor. Cut the sugar in half but still needed vinegar to balance out the sweetness. Will use less sugar next time. Skipped the kidney beans, cannellinis were perfect.

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