Recipe: Chili con Carne

This is the best fucking chili con carne I’ve ever made. Most of it was improvised, but let’s see how far we can get with what I remember:

Ingredients:

  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 jalapeño (unpickled, fresh), deseeded, finely chopped
  • 1/4 ancho chilli (unpickled, fresh) deseeded, finely chopped (gives a fruity, very intense heat)
  • 3 bits of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped (roughly less than 1 whole one)
  • 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 can of red kidney beans in chilli sauce (400g)
  • 1 small can of kidney beans, rinsed (optional for extra protein, 200g)
  • 600 grams of good quality minced beef
  • 4 slices of smoked back bacon, finely chopped, chunky white bits removed
  • 1 can of tomato chunks in tomato sauce (400g)
  • 2 tbsp of tomato puree
  • 1 tbsp of ground cumin (heaped!)
  • 1 tbsp of ground coriander (heaped!)
  • 1 tsp of garlic salt
  • 1 stock cube, beef
  • 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp of fish sauce (Thai, they’re the experts after all)
  • ½ tsp MSG / E621 / Monosodium glutamate (no it’s not bad for you and you can’t be allergic, that’s a myth that’s been debunked several times!)
  • 4 tbsp of red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon but most non-sweet dry-ish wines will work)
  • 1 tbsp of cornflour, mixed with 3-4 tbsp of water
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Method:

  1. Heat the oil in a big nonstick saucepan or Dutch oven
  2. On low heat, add the onion, jalapeño, ancho chilli and chipotle peppers ‘till the onion is getting glazed and the peppers have “chilled” and are no longer pepper-spraying you.
  3. Add the cumin and coriander, with salt and black pepper to taste. Stir well!
  4. Add the bacon and the garlic, and start sautee-ing it with the heat at half-to-low strength.
  5. Once the garlic has softened and the bacon has gotten close to done/stiff, add the minced meat.
  6. Break the mince against the sides of the pan to push it apart, then add the stock cube (crumbled!) and the tomato puree.
  7. Stir well, and fry this gently ‘till the beef is well-browned, then add the beans, bell pepper, canned tomato, wine, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, MSG, and fish sauce; and stir well.
  8. Simmer this for 30 minutes up to an hour, making sure everything has gone very tender.
  9. Carefully add the cornflour mixed with water, while the heat is very low or off and make sure the cornflour is properly mixed in with the water before you add it.
  10. Stir well, then simmer for another 15-20 minutes ‘till most moisture has evaporated/thickened.
  11. Check for seasoning, add salt/pepper if you want, then: EAT! Put this in your FACE!

PS: Feel free to use nachos to scoop this delicious stuff up!
Or add some guacamole. And/or some cheese. And/or salsa. And/or sour cream. Go nuts!
(Worth making home-made salsa for this, and I’ve got a kickass recipe that beats jarred versions by miles. Just scroll down a little at the Black Bean Stew recipe!)