Texas Red Chili
The first cookbook I bought after Diane and I got married wasn’t really a cookbook. It was a recipe booklet from Betty Crocker, the ones they sell in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. Soups, Stews and Chilis was full of very bland recipes, except… In the middle was an insert. In that insert were the recipes that won the International Chili Society cook off between 1989 and 1993. Those recipes were another step on my way to becoming DadCooksDinner.
In Ohio, in 1994, it was a revolutionary concept to make chili Texas style, with big chunks of beef and without beans. And the flavor! A half cup of chili powder! This was a culinary revelation.
Texas Red Chili became my signature recipe.
Yes, I know I’m not from Texas
Beef cut into 2 inch cubes
Over the years, I’ve brought it to potluck lunches at work, tailgating at Ohio State, family gatherings, and countless Super Bowl parties. All of my younger brother’s friends know this recipe. My parents hold a Super Bowl party every year, and my brothers would invite their friends from college over. The starving college students would descend on the pot like locusts. Nowadays, they’re all successful professionals. But they still come to the super bowl party, and they still clean out the pot.
This recipe started my Chili Fest tradition at work. Someone suggested a chili cook-off among us computer programmers, and I brought in a crock pot full of my Texas Red All-Beef Chili.
I still had to explain the “all beef” thing back then.
Added the masa harina and simmered to thicken
It was so popular, people started asking when I could bring it in again. I couldn’t make enough chili to feed everyone, so I sent out an email asking for other people to bring in some chili, and we’d make a lunch of it. We’ve been doing our Chili Fest every fall for the last eight years, and last time I had volunteers bringing in twelve different types of chili, other main courses, side dishes, and desserts. Chili just brings people together. Today is this year’s Chili Fest, and I’m publishing the recipe in its honor.
This will also give me something to point people to when they ask for the recipe.
Recipe: Texas Red Chili
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Texas Red Chili
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Total Time: 5 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 8-12 1x
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A bowl of Texas Red. Chili with big chunks of beef, the way Texas wants it.
Ingredients
- 3 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
- 5 pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 large onions, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.
- 2 chipotles en adobo, minced, with sauce
- 1/2 cup chili powder
- 3 tablespoons cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 jalapeno chiles, minced
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced or crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups water (or homemade chicken stock, if you have some available)
- 1/4 cup masa harina (mexican corn flour)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 cup water
- Juice of 2 limes
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sear the Beef: Salt the beef cubes with 2 tsp of salt. Sear the beef cubes in 3 batches. Heat 1 tsp vegetable oil in a large (8 quart) dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking, then add the beef. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until well browned. I usually just treat them as having two “sides” – 3 minutes, flip, 3 minutes on the other side. Between each batch, add a teaspoon of oil, and let heat for about 1 minute before adding the next batch of beef. Put browned cubes in a big bowl while you work on the other batches. When they’re done, you’ll have a nice, browned fond on the bottom of the pot. If the fond looks like it is starting to burn, reduce the heat to medium, and put the beef cubes directly over the part of the pan that’s in danger of burning. (I use three batches because that allows me to brown the beef without overcrowding the pan. It works best if you use two pans for the browning; you don’t have to watch out for burning as carefully.)
- Saute the Onions: Reduce heat to medium. You want 2 tablespoons of fat in the pan. Add more vegetable oil, or pour out fat to get to 2 tbsp. Put the onions in the pot, add 1/2 tsp salt, then saute the onions until softened and just starting to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Scrape the pot after a minute or two, to loosen up the browned fond and mix it into the onions.
- Toast the Spices: Make a hole in the center of the onions, then add the chipotle puree, 1/2 cup of chili powder, cumin and oregano to the pot. Stir for 1 minute, or until you really start to smell the spices – you want to toast them a bit. Make another hole in the center of the onions, and add the garlic and diced jalapeno. Stir for another minute, or until you smell the garlic.
- Cook the Chili: Make sure your oven rack is in the bottom third of the oven, then heat oven to 325°F. Add the tomatoes and water to the chili pot, and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any stuck spices. Add the reserved beef cubes and any juices they released. Turn the heat on the stove to high, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, and move it into the oven. Bake for 3 hours.
- Final Seasoning: Mix the masa harina, 1 tsp chili powder and water in a small bowl until combined. It should be the consistency a thick cream; add more water if it needs it. Remove the chili from the oven, and stir in the masa harina mix. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, or put back in the oven for 10 minutes to thicken. Stir in the lime juice, and season to taste. (Be careful – the lid and handles are hot! I always forget that, and sear my hand when I grab the handles.)
- Rest and Reheat: (Optional, but helps the flavor a lot.) Leave the chili on the counter, uncovered, until it cools to room temperature, a couple of hours. Cover and move to the refrigerator. Refrigerate overnight, or up to four days. Remove from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you want to serve, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Category: Chili
- Cuisine: American
A bowl of red
Notes:
*Fond is the browned bits of meat and vegetables that stick to the bottom of the pan. It is the basis of flavor in most stews and chilis. The more fond you have, the more flavor you get in the chili when it dissolves into the cooking liquid. Because of this, do not brown the meat for your chili in a nonstick pan! You want the sticking, because that’s how you build a good fond, and that’s how you build flavor. In this recipe we’re doing it twice; once when you brown the beef, and once when you’re sauteing the onions and spices.
If you want to reduce the heat, you can halve the jalapenos and chipotles, or omit one or the other.
Or just skip the peppers all together. But this IS Texas chili…why are you making the recipe if you can’t take the heat?
You didn’t hear it from me, but you can add up to four cups of kidney or pinto beans to this chili. Just don’t use the name Texas in the title if you do that. And I’ll claim I’ve never met you before in my life.
The chili police are relentless, and very specific…no beans allowed.
**Of course, some true believers are going to be after me for adding tomatoes. I’m not a number! I’m a free man!
If you really want to go all out, use bacon fat instead of the vegetable oil. If you really want to do it right, start the recipe by cooking 8 pieces of bacon. Reserve the fat, use it for the cooking, and mince the bacon and sprinkle it on as a garnish when you serve.
I usually make this recipe for a crowd – if you want to scale it back (serving 6-8), cut back to 3 pounds of beef, and halve the rest of the ingredients.
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related posts:
Ranch Hand Chili
White Chicken Chili done right
Inspired by:
The International Chili Society’s World Chili Champions, 1989 through 1993. [chilicookoff.com]
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@Russ:
Thank you! Yes, I use a commercial chili powder blend instead of a pure chile powder. I like the Regular Chili Powder blend from Penzeys spices.
DUDE! You rock! Question for you on the TX Red Chili–do you use chili powder, e.g. the commercial kind with cumin and other herbs/spices blended in, or pure ground chili pepper, like Ancho?
Congratulations on a great blog site!Can’t wait to dig deeper into it.
Russ Gladden
Tucson, AZ
Good work on the blog DCD. I happened upon your site when I searched for Texas Chili. I will definitely be bookmarking this for later.
It was also nice to find someone that might love Alton Brown more than I do.
p.s. Kudos on The Prisoner reference.
@Patrick:
Thank you! I’m glad there’s someone out there who read (watched?) the classics…
On the off chance that you might read this today… I just put the chili in the oven, but don’t have any masa harina. Can I use something else to thicken if it needs it?
@Beth:
You’re welcome! Good decision on the masa harina – always trust your senses more than recipes – even mine.
@Beth:
Oh, and to answer your question – a flour/water slurry will work instead of the masa harina, if you need it.
Thanks for a tasty chili!!
I halved the recipe and it was plenty thick without the need for the masa harina.
The only problem with the flour/water slurry, or masa thickener ( or even cornstarch )is if it is NOT cooked there is a “rawish” flavor from it. Try adding it right after browning the meat. Or use less liquid. OR simmer longer – like an extra day. Or two.
I based a chili pretty closely on this recipe tonight for the Super Bowl. It was fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! I made a double batch for my parent’s annual super bowl party, and the pot was empty by halftime.
I’m going to cook this today and eat it tomorrow. I will report back with the results!
Good luck, Craig. Let me know how it goes.
I made this last week and it was the best chili me and my girlfriend have ever had, thanks!
You’re welcome – I’m glad it worked so well for you!
Looks good. Similar, to the one I ripped from a mag a work then tossed because on the first day it tasted rather bland. The next day and the following days it got better and better and I couldn’t find the recipe. Arrggh! Seems like this will do.
LOL the Iron Maiden reference
I just made this for my works potluck, suffice to say, the pot is now empty.
That’s always a good sign!
Made it last month and it was fantastic. As I work in a Hispanic neighborhood I’m going to substitute fresh and dried chilies available at the local grocer for the powder listed above. I’m also leaning towards putting my meat in the smoker for a few hours before cubing it and adding it to the pot.
Both are great ideas. Enjoy!
This is the next chili on my to-cook list. Here’s what I’m wondering, when you make this these days do you still bake it in the oven for 3 hours or have you modified the recipe for your pressure cooker?
This is my go-to potluck dish, so I usually make it in large batches – too large for my pressure cooker. (Yes, even the massive Kuhn RIkon – though I sometimes use that one as a regular pot, like I did in my pork and bean chili for a crowd last week.)
You can make it in the pressure cooker – follow the instructions for this recipe, cut the water (or chicken stock) back to 1 cup, and use the timings in: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2012/11/pressure-cooker-beef-stew-with-mushrooms.html
I saw this recipe (or one very close to it) in Men’s Journal in the early 90’s… it’s my favorite!
Thanks so much for the perfect recipe,I just got done making it for our chili contest at work,I’m not sure there will be enough left because it’s so good.
★★★★★
Best chili I’ve ever made. Beat my boss in a chili cook off at work. Take that, Jeff.
Used a full head of garlic, one more chipotle, and less lime juice.
★★★★★
Well done my friend, great chili!
Not your typical ground beef with beans.
I have made this numerous times and always, everyone wants to know where I got the recipe!
The only down side is, stew beef is expensive! But, I can’t imagine using something else like ground turkey – blah!
So, what am I doing? I’m back here making a big ole pot of chili today! I serve it on basamati rice and that makes a great meal. Add cornbread and cold beer – could it get any better?
★★★★★