Texas Chili

By mdancause

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 pound of stew beef-- if you want to cut your own: any chuck or round cut (except top round) can be used
• 1 large yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• 2 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
• 1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
• 2 heaping tablespoons of ground cumin
• 1 heaping tablespoon of chili powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cayenne pepper (adjust this to however much heat you like)
• 1/4 cup of any liquid (i.e. beef broth, chicken broth, water, whatever you have!)
• olive oil
• sea salt & pepper

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from thefunctionalfoodie.com

Preparation

Step 1

Dry off the stew beef and season well with salt and pepper.

Brown all sides in a deep pot in olive oil over medium-high heat. if you don't get a loud searing noise when you put the first piece of beef it, it's not hot enough. you are looking for color here, it doesn't need to be cooked all the way through. Do this in batches, because nobody likes boiled beef. place the cooked meat in a bowl to the side....

Next, brown the ground beef.

Once the ground beef is done, move it to the bowl.

Now add the peppers, onions and all your spices, including a little more salt and pepper. Hold off on the garlic until the onions and peppers are almost completely cooked. Garlic has a tendency to burn quickly and gets very bitter if burned. The garlic will only take a minute or two to cook.

Next, add the tomato paste. let this cook down for a minute or two. These extra couple of minutes really reduces that tomato flavor down and gets nice and strong. Now add the all the beef back in and stir well.


Add the 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Let this return to a simmer and taste. Check the consistency of the chili. If you like it thicker, you can avoid adding the extra liquid, but if you like it on the thinner side, add your liquid now. Let this simmer for at least 45 minutes.