Brian’s Texas Style Chili Con Carne

Suffice it to say that chili con carne is one of my favorite dishes. When I first moved out on my own, I was making this stuff almost once a week. It was so pathetic. I had this, I think it was a Betty Crocker Tex-Mex cookbook. One of the chapters was a variety of chili con carne recipes. Over the first few months I lived on my own I tried maybe four or five different chili recipes. What I had eventually done was to decide what I did or didn’t like about each of the recipes I cooked and whipped this recipe up. And when I say “whipped this recipe up,” what I really mean is I adjusted it about a million times until it tasted just how I wanted it. So anyways, I hope this recipe serves you as well as it did me.

3 lbs blade steak cut in bite size chunks
(about 2 inch cubes)
3 Tbsp canola oil plus more as needed
3 onions, chopped fine
1/4 cup corn flour
9 roma tomatoes, chopped fine
3 serrano chiles chopped fine, or as many as you can handle
3 cups beef broth
5 Tbsp chile powder
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp oregano
1.5 tsp celery seed
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup brown ale
1 oz shot of tequila
1 lb dried pinto or black beans

1) Heat oil in a large Dutch oven on medium high heat. Without overcrowding the pot, cook beef until browned on all sides. You’ll have to do this in batches because if you overcrowd the pan, the beef will steam instead of being able to brown properly.

2) Remove beef as it browns and set aside. When the beef is done, turn heat to medium low. Add onions and cook, covered ten minutes. Remove heat, raise heat and cook onions until golden brown.

3) Reduce heat to medium and add corn flour. Stir to combine. Add all remaining ingredients except for the beans and stir well. Add beef back to the pot and bring chili to a boil.

4) Cover chili and simmer three hours, or until beef is fork tender. Take the lid off every once in a while and stir the chili so it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan.

5) In the meantime, put beans in a medium saucepan and add water to cover. Bring the beans to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until beans are tender. Every once in a while, stir the beans and add water as needed.

6) Drain the beans and stir them into the chili. Give the chili a quick stir. If there’s too much sauce leave the lid and let it simmer for another half hour or so. If there’s not enough sauce, add more beef broth, 1/4 cup at a time until the sauce is the consistency you like. Serve hot with crusty bread or sourdough.

If you want to stretch the chili a bit, serve it over rice. Or, you can add cubed potatoes and carrots and turn this chili into a southwestern inspired stew to stretch the meal even further. As another variation, remove the beef with a slotted spoon and allow to cool. When cool, shred the beef and add it back to the pot. If you simmer the chili so the sauce cooks down more you’ve got filling for really good sloopy joes or the filling for burritos, enchiladas or anything else you can imagine.