Are you tired of receiving this (see below) when you ask for Chili? Are you thinking that just possibly you could do better? You can. You will. You must.
And if you’ve done any research for chili recipes you know that there are as many variances as there are home remedies for the common cold. Just ask anyone. Some people don’t like beans, some do. Or add tequila or whole tomatoes, or no tomatoes. You just need to find what you like and do that. I found that using coarse ground beef and real chilies help with the final product. All the rest is just for fun.

With the above in mind I struck out Saturday morning looking for some ingredients. Initially I figured I would just buy a packet of some premixed powders, ground beef and a can of tomatoes for a quick chili surprise. I got halfway there and decided that maybe with some effort and cool appliances I could make some decent Chili. I did buy some premixed powders, Mickey Gilley’s Chili Mix. I did buy a few 8oz cans of tomatoes and a can of diced green chilies and some meat. Halfway through the meat isle, thinking how gross it would be to settle for standard ground beef and not getting the “chili grind (which no one has)” I wanted. I remembered I’d purchased the meat grinder attachment for that fancy schmancy KitchenAid mixer. What the heck, “let’s grind some meat” my mind said. So it was 2.5 lbs of stew meat for me !

The meat grinding went very very well. It was almost too easy. I found it took longer to clean the grinder than it did to grind a few pounds of stew meat. Fun.
And sure enough, I had bought/ground too much meat. Dang. What to do? I needed more chili powder/mix and I didn’t have any more. I’d used it in a rub for the pork shoulder the day before! Damn … think Guy, think (picture Pooh Bear thoughtfully sitting tapping his head with paw).
Well, I didn’t have any chili powder. What is chili powder? Dried red chilies. I have dried red chilies !!!
I figured 5 New Mexican Red Chilies would fit the bill. Boiling water took a few minutes and I set it aside, added the seeded/veined chilies and browned the meat with a diced onion and some garlic. The recipe on the package didn’t ask for that stuff, but it seemed like a good idea. After the meat was browned I figured the chilies had hydrated enough, don’t you think? Into the blender they went with a little water. Leave it on and make sure that chili is a smoove puree.
Add the package, along with the puree & 16 oz of tomatoes. The package wanted two cups of liquid and since I had a bit more than one package worth of meat, maybe 3 cups or so would do it. I chose some leftover coffee from the a.m. and some natural beef broff. Oh and put in the diced green chilies. Put the lid on and let it simmer for a few hours. Choose a heavy gauge pot for this, cast iron works very well. Oh hell, use what you have for goodness sakes. What counts is making something edible.

About 30 minutes before this was done I made some fresh cornbread with extra butter, extra virgin olive oil and fresh thyme from the garden.