I make this chili regularly and it always gets high praise. It couldn't be simpler, but I always get requests for the recipe so I decided to go ahead and post it here for reference.
I have written the recipe based on one pound of 90% lean ground beef although I never make a batch that small. Grow the recipe as needed. I recently made a five pound batch and it fed thirty five people at my church and I had lots left over. It could have easily fed double that number.
Use 90% lean ground beef. The fattier stuff is just plain yucky. We are going to rinse the fat away anyhow so anything fattier than 90% is wasted money.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
- 2 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tbsp Spanish Paprika
- 2 tsp Cumin
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Fresh Diced White Onion (about one medium sized onion)
- 2 cans Tomato Puree
(or one can of puree and one can of diced tomatoes if you want chunks of tomatoes. You can also use two cans of tomato paste and thin it with water, or vegetable or chicken broth.)
- 4 Cans of Water (Use the empty tomato puree cans to measure).
- About a tablespoon of fresh minced garlic. I would say a couple cloves, but many people get cloves confused with heads. What you want is to break off two or three nice sized chunks of garlic from a fresh head, whack 'em, peel the paper skin off and run them through a garlic press. Let the leftover chunks from the garlic press fall into the pan as well.
- 2 Tbsp flour as a thickening agent. (optional)
- Olive Oil (EVOO)
*Optional:
- Cayenne Pepper or Chilie Pequin (The pepper flakes they serve in pizza restaurants)
- Frank's Hot Sauce (Tabasco)
- Vinegar
Start with a pan large enough to hold all the chili. Brown the ground beef over medium high heat.
Dump the browned ground beef into a colander and shake out as much of the fat as you can. Rinse the beef lightly with hot water to get a little more fat off of the meat, and to add a little moisture. Set aside.
Put the pan back on the stove over medium high heat and drizzle the bottom with the olive oil.
When the oil is hot, add the freshly pressed garlic. I just press the garlic right over the pan. Stir the garlic a bit until it starts to brown and then add the diced onion.
When the onion starts to get translucent, add the beef back into the pan and add all of the rest of the ingredients except the flour.
Stir it until it is completely mixed and reduce the heat to medium low. Just a little more than simmer. Cover the chili and let it cook for a hour; stirring it every few minutes, as the meat tends to settle on the bottom of the pan and it will burn there if you don't keep it mixed up.
After the chili has cooked thoroughly, if it is too thin and you'd like to thicken it up a bit, take the flour and add it to a small mixing bowl. I usually use a 6 oz. drinking glass. Spoon a little of the juice from the chili into the flour and mix it thoroughly. Don't add too much liquid or the flour will get chunky and you will have lumps of flour in your chili. Add the liquid a little at a time and constantly stir it until you have a flour/chili juice mixture that is the consistency of smooth runny gravy. add it to the chili and mix it well. simmer the chili for another 5 minutes or so and the starch in the flour will firm it up nicely.
* This is the basic chili recipe. It is family friendly, mild chili that none of the kids will balk at. If you want the chili hotter, then add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, some Chile Pequin and maybe a tablespoon or two of Frank's Louisana Hot Sauce. If you want the chili a little tangier, try a little vinegar or the juice from a fresh lime or lemon. Experiment with the heat.