Well, it's chili time again and this month I thought I'd try something different.  Instead of keeping it mild, I decided to try some hot peppers and add a little beer to it.  I am stewing everything except the beer and the meat for about 5 hours and the other two go in about a half hour before serving.  The ground beef is browned before added, of course.  Sorry about the standard measurments..

24 oz Tomato sauce
16 oz Tomato paste
1 lb 95% lean ground beef
1 green bell pepper diced
2 Jalapeno peppers
24 oz Kidney beans
2 tsp. Chili Powder
1- 12 oz can of beer
1 tsp Cumin

I usually serve this in a crockery bowl with raw onions and cheese on top with French bred on the side.  When I get a digital camera, I'll post a pic and make Fozzer hungry!  This will serve about six to ten people.  I think I may finally be getting a recipe nailed down...  

Actually Pippen, that sounds pretty damn tasty!

Contrary to popular belief - I do not eat the scorched earth chili every time. Mainly cause no one else will eat it and I have to eat the whole pot myself.

Here's a few ideas if you would like.

Serve with Honey Cornbread sometime for variety.
Add a dash or two of liquid smoke, Hickory or Mesquite

Use a 6 pack of beer instead of just one. One in the chili, drink four while cooking and one to drink while eating. This is based on the assumption you are talking about 32oz cans.  

The alcohol cooks out Andrew and just leaves the flavor.

Sorry to disappoint you Andrew but Abi loves the taste of wine, we water it down of course!!



Sarah

I will feed it to the 15 yo, but not the babies.  I think their tummies are just a bit too uncultured for Jalapenos.  

As was said, it's not a matter of the alchohol, I also gave some of the chili to my pregnant neighbor downstairs (who was VERY appreciative).  By the time that beer spends two hours in the crock pot (Tammy's idea, not mine, I wanted a half hour) there is absolutely no alchohol left.  As for teaching my kids to enjoy the taste of alchohol, I plan on being the one to give my son his first beer.  It's a matter of teaching them responsibility, not denying them something that will only look more alluring as he talks to his friends.

Next month, I was planning on trying Tequila instead of beer...

To me, it won't really be MY chili until I figure out how to give it that chili flavor without using chili powder.  The idea is to come up with something unique and I'm pretty sure in the 1800's when chili was first invented, they couldn't just go down to Dominick's and pick up a can of spice.  Most cook-off recipes do not include it either, and I think it may be illegal.  Someday if I get it right I may enter it in a chili cook-off.  Not that I expect to get anywhere on my first few attempts, but hey, someone's got to win....