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© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA
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Recipe from: Stephen "Blue" Heaslip via Mike Webster
This is what you call Texas-style chili, which is a glorification of beef in all its goodness, but keeping with a grand tradition, eschews things that many would readily associate with chili, like tomatoes and beans.
Here goes, this is about the best I can do to translate what is a seat-of-the-pants process into measurements and a recipe. Be warned, the two alternates are for the three-alarm (family) version and the true six-alarm (which I only make for my wife and myself) variants, as they are the only versions I make, if you want milder, adjust the chili powder and peppers down to taste. Feel free to experiment with the varieties of peppers you use, you can find some interesting exotic dried, fresh and jarred peppers out there, which can greatly alter the hotness and taste of the finished product.
7 pounds beef, trimmed and cut into 1inch to 2 inch cubes (they will break up during cooking), your choice of cut — I like some amount of sirloin in there myself, but stewing beef works more than fine
Approx 7 cups beef broth (4 14-½ ounce cans)
¾ cup olive oil
15 cloves garlic, finely chopped
¾ cup flour
1 bottle beer
3 ounce tequila, if of legal age, 4-½ ounce
3 ounce blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons cumin
⅓ cup chili powder (to taste)
1 dash ginger
1 dash nutmeg
1 tspn salt
1 tspn ground black pepper
1 tspn white pepper
1 tspn cayenne pepper
5 ounce jarred hot jalapeño peppers and juice or equivalent quantity of sliced fresh hot jalapeño peppers.
For the six-alarm version, also add a similar quantity of sliced jarred habanero peppers, or fresh ones, if you want to be fugu fish careful when handling them. Be very careful when handling the jarred ones as well (being pre-sliced, they're easier to deal with) because you don't want even traces of this stuff undiluted on your skin, much less in your eyes, or directly on anything that might find its way into your mouth, your family's mouths, or basically anybody's mouth but your worst enemy's. Directions
Place beef in a Dutch oven or similar large pot in the olive oil and cook low heat until browned Add 3 ounce tequila and stir, if using the legal age variant, drink the other 1-½ ounce tequila.
Stir in garlic. Slowly add a mixture of the flour and chili powder, stirring constantly to blend in evenly.
Add beer... stir
Add molasses... stir
Add cumin and oregano by rubbing them between the palms of your hands... stir
Add peppers and remaining spices... stir
Add all but one can (all but approx. 2 cups) beef broth, stirring.
Bring to a slow boil for a ½ hour or so, stirring often, then lower heat
and simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.
Do not be worried if it sticks a bit to the bottom of the pan, just make sure to scrape those parts up when stirring (a wooden spoon is good for this)... those bits add flavor ;)
At some point a couple of hours into the simmering when it's cooked away a good bit of broth, remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature, then place in fridge for a few hours until cold (if you are in a hurry, this step can be skipped, but I think it helps). Anytime within the next 12 hours after chilled, resume cooking over low heat. When nearly at chili-like consistency, add the remaining beef broth. Cook until at proper chili consistency again, and serve with rice.
This was all the original author's work, originally found at http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?show=105
My notes, I usually make half this recipe and use all sirloin and don't halve the amount of jalapeños, works out pretty well in my opinion. I also add maybe a ¼ cup of vinegar cause I like that extra bit of tanginess. The overnight rest definitely help, let's the flavors really come together. The sirloin just falls completely apart in this dish, it's *really* good, but not cheap. I think the next time I make it I'll buy a sirloin roast and cut it up instead of buying steak. Another thing, you can't really brown the meat over low heat, that's Another thing, you can't really brown the meat over low heat, that's kind of silly. I brown the meat in a cast iron skillet in batches and throw it into the dutch oven as I go. Oh, one other thing as to prep, I don't use white pepper, can't abide the stuff, don't like the taste of it, though in a dish this size it's impact is probably not that high.