The Basic Chili Recipe
by Ruth Reichl
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients
You have 4 of 16
produce
- ○3onions
- ○1 canblack beans
- ○oregano
- ○1 large canchopped tomatoes
- ✓garlic
- ○small canchipotle peppers in adobo sauce
protein
- ○1 poundground bison
dairy
- ✓sour cream
- ○grated cheddar(grated)
pantry staple
- ✓soy sauce
- ✓olive oil
- ○cumin
- ✓salt
- ✓pepper
- ✓balsamic vinegar
- ○1 ouncechocolate
other
- ○1 bottledark beer
- ○cream sherry
- ○chicken stock
Instructions
- Dice three medium onions and saute them in olive oil until they’re soft.
- Add 6 cloves of garlic, smashed, and let them soften too.
- Add a tablespoon of chopped fresh oregano, some salt and pepper, a bit of cumin and two teaspoons of your homemade chili powder – more if you like really hot food.
- Add a pound of ground bison, and cook, stirring, until it loses its redness.
- Puree 3 or 4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (from a can) and stir that in along with a large can of tomatoes, chopped up, and another teaspoon of your chili powder.
- Add a cup of homemade chicken stock, and a cup of a robust dark beer and let it all simmer at a slow burble for a couple of hours.
- Before serving stir in a cup or so of black beans.
- Now you get to play with the flavors. Is it hot enough? Do you want more chili powder?
- Sometimes I’ll melt an ounce or so of really good chocolate and stir that in to give it depth.
- Other times I’ll add a spoonful of fish sauce, or a splash of excellent balsamic vinegar.
- Sometimes soy sauce to spark it up, other times cream sherry to mellow it down.
My notes
You can serve this chili with cilantro, sour cream and grated cheddar. But my favorite way to serve it is topped with pimento cheese. It adds a certain something.