Beef and cocoa
 

I made chili tonight. Although I am mainly veggie, I had beef in my chili. I made it with both a handful of white northern beans and a pound of pintos. The beef was about three pounds of minced stew meat, marinated in a couple of tablespoons of cocoa, a teaspoon of chili powder, and about four to five tablespoons of olive oil.

I had already soaked and cooked the beans before this. I flash cooked the beef and then added other chili flavors, including a dash of cumin, and another teaspoon of cocoa at the end of cooking.

This was actually experimental cooking tonight. I actually originally wanted to do it the traditional ground beef way, but my husband brought home stew meat and the ground beef was still thawing. Tonight's cocoa marinated beef added a lot of depth in the chili.

I have added cocoa in beef marinades in the past. Even in tough cuts. It seems to tenderize the cuts, as well as add depth in the flavor.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Stew meat or cubed chuck is IMNSHOAAT* the BEST way to make chili. It is actually the traditional way of preparing it.

*In my not so humble opinion as a Texan

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Down here, we use ground beef. It has always been our tradition. I didn't know that stew or cubed chuck was the traditional way to make it.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Even here, in the Land of Chili, I would say 90% is made with ground beef. I confess I make it that way sometimes when I am lazy.

Fierce fights can break out amongst Texans over the question to bean or not to bean. Both camps are firmly entrenched. I am devoutly anti-bean in regards to chili, though I love bean dishes and I do think it is overall in the spirit of the economy of the dish. For years I would refuse to even call it "chili" if there were beans in it. It drove my BFF crazy. :giggle:

The world is against me though so I finally gave in. Add beans, use ground beef, whatever, it is chili. :sigh:

I still reserve the original term for the real McCoy. Cubed cuts of cheap meat, peppers, heavily seasoned and cooked to tender oblivion is authentic chili con carne in my book. :hungry:

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

My mother used ground beef and my wife usually used cubed round steak (though lately the local grocery stores seem to stopped carrying that cut). Pinto beans only. None of those nasty kidney beans the Texans pretend to like so much. Onions, chiles and cumin. No tomatoes in any shape, form or variety. Also, no corn, sugar or any other weird stuff.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

I am kinda horrified right now. I have never, ever seen kidney beans in chili before. That seriously made my blood run cold.

Contra says he has seen that so maybe that is a thing from where his crazy family is from. But damn, that is criminal.

Most of the times I have seen beans added they are pinto. Now I love me some pinto beans, but keep them the hell away from my chili.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

If you are fixin chilli con carne I agree. If it is chilli con carne y frijoles, you gotta have beans.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

:loud:

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Incorrect. If she had written "In my humble opinion as a Texan" that would have been an oxymoron. Her "not so" makes it a plain statement of fact.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Intrigued ... squaring the circle of beef?

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

For a long time (up until a long time ago, from a very long time ago), I assumed red kidney beans were an authentic and essential ingredient.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

What is this hot mess you people are calling chili?

Chili has cubed or shredded pork, tomatillos, and roasted green chiles.

FIGHT ME.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

No, that's chili verde. Good old Texas Red is made with beef and roasted ripe poblanos.

I too put a little unsweetened cocoa in my chili, plus a pinch of cinnamon. I'm no purist, you see. I occasionally put beans in it too, but not kidney beans, that's just wrong. It's pinto beans, if any.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

For real, guys.

Much like pizza, chili is not single, discrete dish, but a category. Chili is a stew that prominently features chile peppers. So you got your Texas red chili, which is further broken down into different bean-no bean categories and so forth. Then, you got your Colorado and New Mexico green chilis, which are broken down and categorized according to things like tomato-no tomato, tomatillo-no tomatillo, cooking method, and type of meat. You can also have chili that has mushrooms! They used to have what they called Bolivian Chili at this place I went--it was basically a spicy beef and mushroom stew in a chile pepper and tomato sauce topped with feta.

And there are also white chilis and vegetarian chilis and a whole bunch of other stuff. They're all chili, and they're all much tastier if you don't feel like to have to prioritize or legitimize or compare them to everything else that is also referred to as "chili."

Taxonomies! At once beautiful and grotesque!

:peace1:

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Chili apologist!

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

I propose a new taxon: 1980s British chilli. (Yes, spelled that way.) Ground beef, red kidney beans, store-bought "chilli powder", onions, tomatoes.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

I can never understand the way people argue over chili! Personally, I like it with black beans, pink kidneys, and pintos, but I am fine with beanless chili, too. It is just much more greasy, so I don't eat more than a few polite bites. Even here at home, my husband argues with me over chili. I just tell him that if he doesn't like it, cook it himself. Shuts him up nearly every time. :)

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

My chili isn't ever greasy, but that's because I use lean meat to make it.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Then I stand corrected. :) I know a lot of people who do use lean meat, but they cook it in so much oil. It defeats the purpose. My ex husband makes his chili with a smoked pork butt.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

I have started using cocoa when ever I make anything similar to beef stew. I used it in the fillings for my steak and ale pies when I was obsessed with them. Also I use it when I make short ribs in the slow cooker. It adds a nice depth.

The only chili I make is what I call my black and white chili. It's a basic white chili with black beans that I really love. I don't add cocoa to that but I do put a parmesan rind in while it's cooking. That really adds something, I find.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

If using a roast or steak to make it, I may brown it in a little oil, but not large amounts and most of the oil stays in the browning pan. I often make it with roast already cooked in the crockpot, chopped up into bits. But, most often, I use ground beef, the 95% lean stuff and I use no added oil.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

I guess it's because we have a regional chili, but if you say "chili" around here, it doesn't really call to mind one specific thing. Like if you went to a restaurant in Colorado or New Mexico and ordered "chili," they'd need you to be a lot more specific. The default is green chili, which is mostly roasted green chile peppers with pork (usually) and maybe tomatoes and maybe tomatillos. But even that we call 'green chili,' and other kinds are 'red chili,' although I think what red chili is depends on the context. If you order a bowl, it's probably Texas style chili (we also call that chili con carne, and yes, I know most chili is con carne, but that's what it means idiomatically), but if you order it as a sauce, I think it's more like enchilada sauce. I don't know for sure, because why the hell would I ever order such a thing?

Green chili is always the sameish thing, though, whether you order it in a bowl or on top of stuff. It's usually not served alone, but accompanied with something else, like rice or posole or eggs or burrito or at least tortillas.

There was an episode of that one restaurant show with Robert Irvine where he gets all angry and confused about green chili at some Colorado restaurant because they were using the same stuff on everything. THAT IS HOW YOU DO, ROBERT IRVINE.

It's kind of strange that green chili is such an isolated thing, though. It really is the best type of chili by far.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

Mmmm...green chili...sounds lovely! I need to look for a recipe.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

It is lovely, and it's one of the main reasons I can never move out of state.

I have a couple of sort of recipes in this thread:

The Official FF Contest for who peeled the most green chiles yesterday - Freethought Forum

It's pretty simple, but roasting and peeling the chiles is a little tedious. You might be able to get frozen green chiles, though, to sidestep that part.

The best thing is when you have leftover green chili, you poach some eggs in it and serve it over polenta for breakfast.

Re: Beef and cocoa
 

It is lovely and I spent over a week traveling across Colorado and New Mexico eating it every chance I got.