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They actually worked really well to absorb some grease and up the umami. They were powdered, just like the dried chilis. Apparently I’ll have to back off the heat a bit for the competition. I was told that these aren’t real chili judges, but people in the industry that were enlisted as judges, so I need to keep it palatable for the pussy white folk. I was told if it’s too hot for a child to eat, it’s too hot for the judges, which seems fucking absurd for a chili cook-off.

 

 

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  • Not bad for my first time. 2nd place out of 69 entries at the Texana Chili Spill. 

  • jimmyjazz
    jimmyjazz

    Probably my best ever:  an attempt to get close to the original San Antonio Chili Queens recipe.  I used less onion and more chile peppers & cumin, but the result was stellar.  I'd say the heat wa

  • elfenix
    elfenix

    3.5 lbs chili grind, 3 or 4 lbs cubed smoked brisket, a bunch of peppers made into paste, powders bloomed in beef fat, bunch of onions + ones floating around the fridge, some serranos and jalapenos fl

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uh, that doesn't look bad at all. feel free to ship some my way...

That’s how it looked after a good stir. Before that, some oil had pooled on top, but it all got happy once I stirred it and took it off the heat.

 

 

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Pleased with this cold snap’s effort. Best pot yet. Reconstituted pepper slurry is definitely the correct answer; next-level flavor. Rep to all you gents for posting your ratios. Skillet cornbread was on point as well.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
I think canoe paddles are cheaper for stirring.

Best $25 the cook team could have spent. It was the envy of all the other teams.


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So how many pounds of meat is that

Looks good Hop. I've never made a batch that wasn't bigger than my biggest dutch oven could handle. I'm wondering how it would hold up if I made a giant pot like that. 

 

Surly chili cook-off ..... lets get that idea off the ground. 

For the super bowl / chili cook-off I'm attending this afternoon. 3 lbs Chuck cubed and 2 lbs chili ground.

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On 2/2/2019 at 9:08 PM, huge said:

So how many pounds of meat is that

About 30lbs of 80/20 chili grind ground chuck from HEB.

On 2/2/2019 at 11:29 PM, NorthLoop said:

Looks good Hop. I've never made a batch that wasn't bigger than my biggest dutch oven could handle. I'm wondering how it would hold up if I made a giant pot like that. 

 

Surly chili cook-off ..... lets get that idea off the ground. 

When you scale up like this, you just gotta be careful of 2 things - amount of liquid and amount of chili spices.  I scaled up most of my not-so-spicy spices (chili powder, cumin, paprika, etc.) proportionally, and had a second chili powder mix with my hot boys (Cayenne, Scorpion, Klinger's FL Grove, Ghost, Serrano, etc.) and used like 50% the scaled up quantities to get close to the same heat  Salt was added to taste; I doubt that would scale proportionally either.

To control my liquid content, I used beef broth concentrate instead of straight beef broth and added just enough water to get the desired consistency.  After walking around, most others looked like chili soup whereas mine had the real chili consistency. I didn't finish in the top 3, but I got rave reviews from everyone that tried it.  I'm waiting to get a copy of the final scores to get an idea of how I can improve going forward, though I've heard the judging is very inconsistent.  Someone said that if you could turn in a bowl of Hormel chili, you'd probably end up on the podium, so take their scores with a grain of salt.  I had a few people who said they sampled all of them, but mine was the only one they came back to for seconds.  For me, it was as good as my test batch.  There are a couple things I would tweak, but overall, I was very happy with how it turned out.

Edited by hopkinsnhorns

Salt content is super important.  I made a batch yesterday that was too watery and too flavor-free at the 4-hour mark.  I added 2 tsp of salt (originally the batch had 3 tsp salt) and 3 Tbsp of masa harina, and it all tightened up and became magically delicious.  Not just salty magically delicious, but suddenly all the flavors pop.  It's no mystery, chefs will tell you that salt enhances existing flavor, but it was a pretty good lesson on the need to adjust.

So I just got the results back, and we finished with 88 points out of a possible 125.  Third place was 89 points, so we finished 1 point off the podium and only 4 points behind 2nd place.  My one regret was brown sugar.  I added some to help cut the heat/acidity, but I overdid it just a bit.  It wasn't sweet, but you could definitely tell there was a sweetener in there and that was not my intention.  If I had added less initially and made incremental additions, I think I could have dialed this thing into perfection.  Oh well, live and learn.  Overall, I was satisfied with our effort and I think we can definitely find the podium next time around.

  • 2 weeks later...

Made my first batch of 2019 last week
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Did not disappoint


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13 minutes ago, PantsTent said:

Cast iron game is strong.

 

Pro tip
I rendered down some brisket fat and have been using that to wipe them down with.

Just saw this thread.  Holy food porn.  Definitely going to try the whole peppers in the pot thing.

Serious question; do you guys actually think beans taste bad in chili, or is it just some derkaderkaNOBEANSINTEXASCHILIderkaderka thing?  I've always been indifferent to their presence.  Chili to me is about the spices, meat, and veggies.  I've had shitty chili with no beans and I've had great chili with them.

Edited by Al_4_ISU

  • Author

"If you know beans about chili, you know that chili has no beans.”

-Wick Fowler

Just saw this thread.  Holy food porn.  Definitely going to try the whole peppers in the pot thing.
Serious question; do you guys actually think beans taste bad in chili, or is it just some derkaderkaNOBEANSINTEXASCHILIderkaderka thing?  I've always been indifferent to their presence.  Chili to me is about the spices, meat, and veggies.  I've had shitty chili with no beans and I've had great chili with them.

It’s a Texas thing
Also if you ever cook in a sanctioned chili cook off, beans are not allowed


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4 minutes ago, Dutch said:

"If you know beans about chili, you know that chili has no beans.”

-Wick Fowler

So it's just one of those things.

 

I'm always looking for new chili hacks.  As seen up thread, there's far too much bad chili in the Midwest.  I almost never order in restaurants because it's probably made mild as fuck.  People who never eat anything spicy being afraid of spice is a constant battle here.  I've developed some good recipes over the years, and kind of never like making it the same way twice.  I see plenty of opportunity to tweak in this thread.

One thing I like to add is using dried chili's and making a puree out of them
Down here the grocery stores will have bins of different dried chilies
I grab an assortment 
you put them in a pan with a little bit of water, cover and  cook them for a bit until they are soft and tender
Then you drain, remove the seeds and stems and put them in a blender with a little water or chicken broth.
You can add other spices, garlic, onion, jalepenos or serranos 

once you have a good red chili slurry, you can add as much as you like to your chili for an added kick

Be sure to toast them in a dry pan first.  It softens them up and gives them a great flavor.

3 hours ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

Made my first batch of 2019 last week
ac304b34e51a4379fc15e61e4f5eaabc.jpg
Did not disappoint


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Do my eyes deceive me, or are you using a cast iron pot with legs on top of a glass top stove?

33 minutes ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

Do my eyes deceive me, or are you using a cast iron pot with legs on top of a glass top stove?

Why yes, yes I am. Works like a champ

You're a braver man than me.  I'm actually surprised it works and the glass survived the high heat and point loads.

3 hours ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

Be sure to toast them in a dry pan first.  It softens them up and gives them a great flavor.

I throw the ground comino in the pan too, toasts it up and brings out the oils.

But you can also do this in the oven, low temp about 200-250, for a couple of minutes until you smell them.

For those trying the rehydrated chili slurry, make sure you blend it all for a while.  I made some chili on Super Bowl Sunday that tasted great, but there were little small pieces of unground guajillo pepper throughout, no bigger than your pinky fingernail.  I didn't blend long enough.

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

For those trying the rehydrated chili slurry, make sure you blend it all for a while.  I made some chili on Super Bowl Sunday that tasted great, but there were little small pieces of unground guajillo pepper throughout, no bigger than your pinky fingernail.  I didn't blend long enough.

Vitamix solves this issue easily.

1 minute ago, utee94 said:

Vitamix solves this issue easily.

I used a Vitamix.

For my chili cookoff, I powdered all of my dried chilis ahead of time so I could make my mix ahead of time.  Food processor until small enough for the coffee/spice grinder to handle.  Gotta be careful with the hot boys, like Scorpion.  I did that out on my patio with a wet bandana over my face so I didn't mace myself.  Probably looked like a meth cook, but the good good chili powder was worth it.

Just now, jimmyjazz said:

I used a Vitamix.

Weird.  With a Vitamix I don't have to blend very long at all.  Definitely not more than a minute.  Usually more like 30-45 seconds.

3 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Weird.  With a Vitamix I don't have to blend very long at all.  Definitely not more than a minute.  Usually more like 30-45 seconds.

Yeah, that's what I meant.  I needed to blend longer.  I think I went about 10 seconds.  (I was half in the bag already.)

Just now, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, that's what I meant.  I needed to blend longer.  I think I went about 10 seconds.  (I was half in the bag already.)

Ah, well ok.  Ten seconds might be a tad too much to expect, even from a Vitamix (though it's more than my wife expects of me, of course!)

 

Was craving some more chili. I think I’m addicted to the heat how.

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my favorite leftover chili meal - frito pie tacos

would cross-post to the steel shank thread, but plate too fancy

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  • Author

Oh indeed...

I made what I will call a Texas chili pizza last night with some of the leftovers.  Tortilla in nonstick skillet, add cheese, add pre-heated chili, add 2nd tortilla, add more cheese, more chili, fried egg (runny yolk) and some sour cream.  Cover and cook about a minute, until the bottom tortilla is crisp.

Sorry for no pic, but it slammed and went hard.  10/10, will make again.

28 minutes ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

I made what I will call a Texas chili pizza last night with some of the leftovers.  Tortilla in nonstick skillet, add cheese, add pre-heated chili, add 2nd tortilla, add more cheese, more chili, fried egg (runny yolk) and some sour cream.  Cover and cook about a minute, until the bottom tortilla is crisp.

Sorry for no pic, but it slammed and went hard.  10/10, will make again.

You made West Texas/Santa Fe style stacked enchiladas.  Very tasty.

No, definitely more like a layered/stacked enchilada, like utee94 said.  This is a fork and knife kinda deal, not finger food like an quesadilla.  I need to monitor my calories because I want to have it for supper again tonight.  If I do, I'll post pics this time.

BOOM.  I'd eat that.

So if you're monitoring your calories, and also eating that, it was... what... about 3 days worth of food? :)

 

BOOM.  I'd eat that.
So if you're monitoring your calories, and also eating that, it was... what... about 3 days worth of food? [emoji4]
 


Nope, we’ll within my calorie allotment. Those carb balance tortillas saved me like 100 calories and a shit load of carbs and were awesome in this application.

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Chili is my favorite "diet" food.  I'm eating my last meal of it right now.  1 C chili, 3/4 C brown rice, a little sour cream and white onion, all for under 400 calories.

You forgot to plug your beer in on my fitness pal

6 hours ago, deft said:

You forgot to plug your beer in on my fitness pal

Singular beer?

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