Off-the-Cuff Chili
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Off-the-Cuff Chili
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
Serves 4-6
My fellow foodie friend, Jeff John, who also happens to be a rifle aficionado, emailed me a couple of weeks ago to let me know 'something' was coming. Wouldn't say what it was, except that it was shelf-stable.
A surprise! How very cool. When the 'shelf-stable' box arrived at my front door, it was like Christmas: 2 jugs (each over 2 pounds) of fire-roasted chilies. One mild, one medium and one hot. We just happened to open the mild one first, and were blown away by the lovely, farm-fresh aroma. What a treat in the middle of winter. We immediately put the chilies to work, creating an off-the-cuff meal to try them out. We’ve made it several times since, and it’s always delicious.
It’s also a pretty quick dish, if you have tender meat. I timed it the other night and, using a mini-chopper to make fast work of the onion and garlic, I had a bit over 22 minutes into it as I added the final ingredients. From there, it's just a matter of letting it cook long enough to get the flavors mixed. If you don't have tender meat, make the chili in an instant pot and set it on 'stew.' That will tenderize it. Or brine the meat for 24 to 48 hours, depending on toughness, in 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 tablespoon salt. Chili should be a dish you can throw together, and this one is. Of course, it helped that Jeff sent the chilies. Here's the chili’s website: (younggunsproduce.com)
Ingredients
1 ½ pounds red meat, chopped
3-4 tablespoons oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
5 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons BTB reduced-sodium beef base
¼ cup ground cumin
½ cup Young Guns Hatch Valley Green Chile (fire-roasted)
4 teaspoons ground oregano
4 cups water
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
Cooking
1. Trim, chop and dry the meat, wrapping it in a double layer of paper towels to dry it while you prep the other ingredients. When the veggies are chopped/minced (and I often use a mini chopper for this, in batches if I have to, just to do it more quickly), start a Dutch oven on medium-high with a tablespoon of the oil. Brown the meat in several batches, adding oil as needed and transferring it to a bowl as it browns.
2. Add the onions and garlic to the Dutch oven, with more oil as necessary, and sauté them until the edges start to brown. Add the beef base, without the water, and stir it and the cumin, Young Guns chilies, and oregano into the onions. Return the browned meat to the pan as well. Stir it all together until they're well mixed, then add the water ½ cup at a time, stirring it into the chili. Add the frozen corn, now thawed, and stir that into the chili. Raise the heat until the pot comes to a simmer, then turn it down to low.
3. Let the pot simmer 10 to 15 minutes, then serve with grated cheese of choice and crisp corn tortillas. John likes the Mexican cheese blend; I like sour cream or crumbled Cotija cheese.
Eileen Clarke writes a blog on her website, https://www.riflesandrecipes.com with more on this and lots of other recipes. Check out her cookbooks while you’re there. The Wild Bowl has 100 recipes, 26 of them for chili.
Eileen Clarke
https://www.riflesandrecipes.com
406-521-0273
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PhotoCredit: Photo Credits: Eileen Clark
Image 1 Caption: Off the Cuff Chili
Photo Credits: Eileen Clark
