Souper Sunday: Chili Con Carne

I currently work at a college in Rome, GA. A couple of years ago, I started inviting student staffs over to enjoy Souper Sunday with me. It’s a BYOB event (meaning bring your own bowl) because if there is one thing I hate about cooking it would be the clean-up!

This Sunday the students requested chicken noodle, tomato basil and chili. Even though I love all three, I thought chili was the best fit to kick-off Souper Sunday. So alas, chili was the chosen one. Now, I have made several chili recipes over the years and they didn’t quite cut it. Have you ever been to a chili cook-off? There are a 1000 ways to make chili and only half are actually good.

I first consulted the cookbooks that my Mammie left me. Those cookbooks are some of my prized possessions. If the house ever catches on fire, they are conveniently located by the door so that I can grab them on the way out. My Mammie was (and is as far as I’m concerned) the best baker in South Carolina. I was surprised to find that there wasn’t even a soup section in most of her cookbooks! So to the internet I went. Of course, I hit up some of my favorite sites: allrecipes.com, food.com and Pinterest. I found several that I was interested in but none that really caught my fancy, if you know what I mean. I then consulted with my dad and he described a chili that my Aunt Judy used to make called Chili Con Carne.

Okay. Let's get started. Are you excited? I am!

Ingredients:

3 lbs London broil round

2lbs Spicy sausage

2 Poblano peppers

1-2 Sweet onions

2 Green bell peppers

2 Tbsp Liquid smoke

3 cans of mild chili beans

2 (28oz) cans Crushed tomatoes

10 cloves Garlic
1 Jalapeno pepper (seeded and diced)

1 Tbsp Dales seasoning

3-4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Ground cumin

Tabasco sauce

Chili powder

Ground cayenne pepper

Sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Dice your peppers. I slaved away over these (not really I used my food processor.) I like my chili to have a kick but if you don’t then I would recommend that you only use one Poblano pepper or maybe even eliminate both one Poblano and the Jalapeno. I don’t think this soup was too hot by any means but I recognize that I like spicy foods. No one was downing water, wiping their brow or wiping their nose if that helps determine the level of hot-ness.

Now, chop up your onions in the chopper as well as your garlic.

Slice your meat into one inch cubes. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I don't like huge chunks of meat in my chili. Slowly add your sausage and mix the meat well. Add 3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire, 1 tablespoon of Dales, 1-2 tablespoons of soy, 2 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke and season with Kosher salt. Work all of this into your meat well.

Now combine your pepper mixture with your meat mixture. I suggest you use your hands until it is well mixed. Place this in the refrigerator for a few hours. I only had an hour to let it marinate and it was still delicious. If you can let it sit overnight or several hours then fantastic. I just never seem to plan that far ahead.

Now you kill time. I had a glass of wine, checked Facebook and painted my nails in case you were wondering. The picture above is my favorite cheap white wine. It's light and yummy!

On medium-high heat, add your mixture to the pan. Don't cram too much into the pan or it won't cook as well. Brown the meat mixture. It's okay if the meat doesn't cook all the way through because it will finish cooking in the pot Add additional batches to your pot as you finish them. I use a 16 quart stainless steel pot for my soups and I love it!

Add one can of beans and one can of crushed tomatoes to the pot so your meat is cooking in the liquid. I started my soup on medium heat in the pot. As you add more meat to the pot, add the other cans of beans and crushed tomatoes.

Now that you have everything cooking in the pot, it's time to spice it up! I added 3-4 tablespoons of chili power, 8 dashes of tabasco, 1 tablespoon of cumin and a medium sprinkling of cayenne pepper. I then added 2-3 pinches of sugar. Sugar is the secret weapon in so many recipes because it marries the flavors. I also added a light sprinkling of black pepper. Feel free to taste your soup and add accordingly based on your preferences.

I let this cook on low for about 2.5 hours. You could definitely let it cook longer, but I wouldn't let it cook for less than two hours. I served this chili with Fritos, sour cream, shredded cheese, crackers and tortilla chips.