During the pandemic lockdown, Callie and I found Not Another Cooking Show. We highly recommend watching and scouring Stephen’s YouTube channel for recipes and inspiration. One of our favorite recipes we tried was his Wheat Beer Chili with Mexican Chocolate. We’ve adapted it a bit removing the wheat beer and sugar and usually substituting beef broth for chicken broth and recently switched from using Cholula® Hot Sauce to Red Clay or Hoff Sauce Hot Sauce. We also use both ground beef and ground pork in our chili.
Admittedly this recipe takes quite some time to make correctly. To get a rich flavor it’s important to cook the vegetables until they begin to brown at the bottom of the pot and then do the same for the meat. This only happens once the majority of the water content is cooked off which takes a while. But we think it’s worth the effort a few times a year during the colder months. Plus this recipe makes enough for at least 10 healthy servings.
Instructions
2 | Place a heavy bottom stock pot on medium heat and use just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot.
3 | Cook your veggies, stirring frequently, until all of the liquid has cooked out and you begin to see them develop some color.
4 | Add your meat into the pot, break it up, and repeat the same process until the meat begins to caramelize. Scrape the bottom of the pot occasionally to ensure no burning.
5 | Add in 1/3 cup of the spice mixture and combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes to caramelize and then deglaze with worcestershire scraping up all the bits on the bottom of the pot. If you find that you can’t sufficiently deglaze, add in some stock.
6 | Add the tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add in the remainder of your ingredients (hot sauce, tomato sauce, stock, and chocolate).
7 | Stir to combine and cook for 3-4 hours on the stove. We like to cook for 2 hours covered and once its developed a deep brown color, cook uncovered for an additional 1- 2 hours.
8 | Serve with avocado and/or Chris’ sourdough