I never make it the same way twice, but here are a few random thoughts:
I eschew beans. Meaningless carbs. No flavor. Leave them out. In the spirit of the first sentence though, I have used black beans, and black-eyed peas, green split peas, yellow split peas and lentils...
Because beans do have the chemical benefit of thickening the chili, I do agree with freezy's recommendation to use some sort of thickening agent, but I strongly favor arrowroot: it takes much less to thicken it, and its less starchy (those darn carbs!). Arrowroot also has the very strange property of making the resulting chili very shiny! If you're weird, experiment with food coloring too! If you do want to use something more like flour or cornstarch, I recommend using a trick I learned from Caroll Shelby's chili mix: use *masa* flour...it's much tastier. With any thickener, its a good idea to add water to the mix first, let it boil off just a bit and get the other flavors mixed in, then turn it *way* down, add the thickener and let it cook as long as you can so the flavors merge.
I also tend to leave out tomato sauce or tomatoes (although if i add either, it's the latter, fresh/peeled)...I go for really slow cooked chili, so they disappear except for an overwhelmed, barely noticeable flavor (only enhanced by using fresh ones!). I think BigDog recommended giving crock pots as gifts once, and although I've got a big pot and a stove that has settings to do the same thing, I'll second his motion on this one for making really good chili without the nervous hovering that pro's tend not to be able to avoid....
I have started replacing chili powder with chipotle chili powder which is pretty easy to find these days, and it tastes much more interesting! You should also try dumping a chunk of a bottle of Tabasco's new chipotle sauce.
A few Secret Ingredients in mine: worcestershire sauce...capers...brown sugar(only every once in a while...it's an acquired taste), and (people think this is so weird)...tequila.
Second, third and fourth the habaneros: if you dont like the heat, *leave out the seeds*...it's really all about how interesting the habaneros *taste*.
Evil additions: bacon. putting the cheese in and let it cook a while longer.
Unamerican additions: garam masala. blue cheese.
Extravagant option: get really expensive filet mignon and chop it up really well (do NOT put it in a grinder, or even a Cuisinart): sounds silly until you've actually had it....
----------------
Bottom line is that mine really evolved from making Mexican food, so really instead of just a "bowl" with obligatory home-made cornbread, fry some tortillas, and toss some on them with lettuce cheese, tomatoes, and your favorite salsa!
Andale! Andale! Arriba! Arriba!
Buffy
Re: Tried and True Chilli Recipes
