Hey folks! I asked a bit ago about advice on the Best Chili Ever recipe, including my idea of swapping out the Vinegar for some roasted Tomatillos from my garden as well as serving it beanless (or beans on the side), and I wanted to say it came out really nicely. What a wild ride that recipe is!
People were right, you can't "taste and modify" as you go along with this one, and it really needs to come together. I let it rest overnight before the competition and it was perfect the next day.
I got second place in the competition, which was a pretty great showing for over 20 entrants and mine was the only 'spicy' chili and the only one not using ground beef. The winning one, just a bit ahead, was sweeter and more generic, but third place and below were more than 10 votes behind us, so this was absolutely a winner. It was also the only one that was totally emptied out.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chili-recipe
— Alterations:
Swapped Vinegar for Garden Tomatillos: The fresh picked tomatillos worked wonderfully to add the necessary acidic zing without tasting vinegary, and I think my calculations were correct that about 3 large ripe tomatillos provide the same PH shift as the 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar while keeping the flavor less vinegary. I do not like a vinegar flavor to my chili. I cut them in half and broiled them to slightly to soften them up. Blackening their tops does not impart a "smoke" flavor but does make them more interesting.
Swapped Ghost Pepper for Pequin: I could not find any of the small "just for hotness" peppers listed anywhere, which was very disappointing, but I do grow a lot of spicy peppers. I picked a nice red Ghost Pepper and used that. After toasting it slightly under the broiler (creating home-made pepper spray) I added it to the blender and mixed it all up together.
I chose the Ghosts because of the flavor. I had the choice between Caribbean Red Habaneros and Ghost Peppers and chose the Ghost because it has a much fruitier flavor (as opposed to a citrus tang of a Habanero or the smoky, nutty flavor of arbol) that I thought would go well, and I think it did. I wanted to follow Kenji's advice and avoid the "smoke" flavored peppers and balance the flavor profiles of my various peppers, onions, and spices as best I could.
Swapped Dried New Mex for Fresh Hatch Chiles: I wanted to use New Mexico chiles but didn't find any dried ones that looked decent. Since I grow my own Red Hatch varieties I used a bunch of those. De-seeded and blackened in the broiler to soften them, then cooked in the broth pot with my Ancho peppers. Worked well.
— Notes:
Got to use my fancy spices! I really enjoyed a chance to use some fancy spices. Star Anise is always fun to use, and I also had some "Afghan Mountain Wild Cumin" which was awesome to grind up for this, very cool and complex cumin. For the chocolate I used some Mexican stone-ground chocolate which worked very very well and for the coffee I just used one of my nice espressos, which also worked well.
Marmite, seriously? I was very 'lucky' to have some marmite around from a flight where I nearly starved to death and had to pay the airline for food, but the only thing available were jars of marmite. I get why it's used in the recipe but holy smokes, you have to be a dedicated cook to keep marmite around just for one teaspoon for chili. I'd love to find an alternative!
— Recommendations:
Like other folks say, you can use ground chuck for this. Short Ribs are just too expensive to be realistic for a 'production model' of the Best Chili recipe.
I would also recommend increasing the number of peppers used, but keep the proportions similar because it's a really great balance he struck. This way you can top off your pot without needing to use water and you get that chile con carne vibe of beef swimming in pepper broth. I ended up cooking and boiling like an extra 12 red Hatch chiles and the rest of my bag of dried Ancho. I did not add an extra Ghost Pepper though.
I also recommend ditching the Buffalo sauce. I did a taste test in a side bowl and I don't think that stuff adds anything, at least not to mine, it just tastes so commercial and fake. Maybe it adds some heat if you were using a less spicy pepper base, but I would rather let people add their preferred hot sauce to the bowl than adulterate such a nice chili with Buffalo sauce.
by LunarGiantNeil
2 Comments
Congrats! For the record, Marmite is delicious on toast with butter, or peanut butter, and is also great with eggs. So good for snacking as well as umami in kenji recipes.
I make this w/o the beans; it is sooooo good. I also leave out the buffalo sauce at the end.