I entered the chili cookoff again this year, and lost. Although I came in like 5th place, I still had people ask me for the recipe. Which of course, I didn't write down.
So let me retrace my steps.
First, you're going to need meat. And spices. So, I picked up 2 lbs of lean ground beef and a pound of sweet italian sausage (not links, just ground sausage that looks just like the ground beef). I got these at Henry's. While you are there, get a package of baby bella mushrooms.
For spices, I got ground cumin from somewhere in a little baggie. I got whole dried chili pods in bags, both California and New Mexico. I had trouble grinding these up, though. First I tried my nice burr style coffee grinder, but they were too light-weight to fall into the grinding blades. Then I tried the blender (a Ninja). That didnt work real good either, I ended up with flakes and not powder. I used it anyway..
You'll also need some tomatoes.. I used two small cans of Ro-Tel. I like beans, so I used a small can of Sun-Vista pinto beans.
Rounding out the ingredient list is 2 shallots (these look like small yellow onions) and a garlic bulb.
Here's the preparation (because just throwing it all in the pot is too easy).
First, brown 1 pound of beef and the pound of italian sausage, and drain off the fat. Put this in the slow-cooker.
Finely chop the mushrooms (and finely as you can), shallots and garlic. Then, put a tablespoon of olive oil (or whatever oil you prefer) in the same pan you browned the meet in, and saute everything. Dump that on top of the meat. Deglaze the pan with a 1/4 cup red wine, and cook off the alcohol. Pour that into the cooker.
Then, dump in the tomatoes and the beans. Add a generous tablespoon of each chili powder, and a teaspoon of cumin. If there's not enough liquid, add a cup or 2 of chicken or beef broth.
Mix it all up and cook on low for a few hours. You could be done, but I wasn't satisfied at this point. So I added the other pound of ground beef (after browning and draining). I also added a small can of black beans (Bushes Best). Two tablespoons of brown sugar, and another tablespoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cumin, and finally, for good measure, I added a 1/4 cup of brewed coffee that I hadn't poured into my cup that morning.
Continue cooking for another hour or 2. Lastly, add a bit of masa (corn) flour to thicken up the liquid and add a bit of corn flavor.
So that's my 2012 belated chili recipe.
