Sharon's Chili
Sharon Smoot's family chili con carne, with beans: browned beef, onion cooked down in the drippings, and a spice ball of bay, allspice, and dried red chile simmered low and slow. Football food, snow-day food, feeds-a-crowd food. Leave the beans out for a Texas-style bowl or for chili dogs.
Servings: 6 servings
Equipment
- 1 Large pot or stockpot
- 1 Mesh spice ball or a square of cheesecloth tied with string
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1-2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 can tomato paste 6 oz
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 4 cups water
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 medium whole dried red chile I use arbol peppers from Penzeys
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 whole allspice berries
- 2-3 cans pinto beans drained and rinsed; one can per pound of meat, plus one for the pot
Instructions
Brown
- Brown the beef in a large pot or stockpot. When it's nearly done, push the meat to the sides and cook the onion and garlic in the drippings. (This is a Sharon thing; browning the onion in the meat grease adds flavor. Don't skip it.)
- When the onion is nearly translucent, stir everything back together.
Simmer
- Add the tomato paste, salt, water, vinegar, Worcestershire, chili powder, and cumin. Bring to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes, then reduce to a simmer.
- Put the bay leaf, allspice, and dried red chile into a spice ball or a bit of cheesecloth. Add it and simmer at least 30 minutes (up to 2 hours; longer is better, especially for a double or triple batch).
Finish
- About 15 minutes before serving, remove the spice ball and stir in the drained, rinsed beans. Bring everything back up to heat.
Notes
Scale it. One can of beans per pound of meat, plus one "for the pot." A triple batch (3 pounds of meat) takes 4 cans. Half ground turkey and half beef works fine too.
Make ahead. Better the next day. Freezes up to 3 months in quart containers; add a splash of water on reheat.
Without beans. The bean-less version freezes well and is what goes on chili dogs.
The arbol peppers I use come from Penzeys.