Quick Beef Chili

recipe.intro()

Chili is all about layering flavors and letting them meld into something that’s better than the sum of its parts. Like a beautiful website, the care taken to make sure each piece is properly prepared and executed results in something exponentially better. Obviously, this requires time and patience. But if you’re a typical developer, you tend to lack both of those.

Therefore we’ll turn to a few clever algorithms, like browning our meat first, grating the veggies, and saving the starchy water from the beans to give us the same great blend of flavors in a fraction of the time!

recipe.instructions()

Brown the beef

browned_beef = Pot.brown(ground_beef);

Heat your dutch oven (or 6qt pot) over medium-high heat until it’s ripping hot. On my stove I let it heat up for at least 5 minutes. While the pot is heating up, let’s focus on the beef.

Take your 2 lbs of Ground Beef and put it on a large plate, or sheet pan, and dry it thoroughly with paper towels. The enemy of browning is moisture, so we want to get the exterior of the beef as dry as possible. Next, salt and pepper the top liberally.

Once your pot is sufficiently heated, add the ground beef in a single layer seasoned-side down, no oil required. Take your Spoon or your hand and press the beef down so that it makes as much contact with the bottom of the pot as possible. Season the top side liberally with salt and pepper and leave it to brown for at least 5 minutes. Don’t move it, don’t touch it, don’t even look at it!

Once the bottom is nicely browned, take your Spoon and start to break the meat apart into small crumbs. We’ve given the meat a head start in browning, but now by breaking it up we’ll expose more surface area so that the smaller chunks can brown up as well. Make sure to mix occasionally to brown as much as possible on all sides.

After another 5 minutes you should see a thick layer of beef stuck to the bottom of the pot, that’s called Fond, and it’s exactly what we want. Transfer as much meat as you can into a bowl, or container, making sure not to rip up the layer of fond at the bottom, and we’ll move on to the veggies.

Cook the veggies

veggies = Pot.sauté(onion + garlic + tomatoes_with_green_chilies);

Into your pot goes your grated onion and 2 grated cloves of garlic. We want to grate the onion and garlic because it’s faster to prep but it’ll also allow us to cook them faster and for them to incorporate into the background of the dish leaving the beef to be the star.

To your veggies, add a pinch of Kosher Salt and mix with your wooden spoon, making sure to scrape up some of the fond. After a good mix, leave the veggies to cook for 5 minutes.

Next, add your 10 oz can Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies and mix. Make sure to press the tomatoes chunks with your spoon to break them apart and get out some of their moisture. Scrape up any more of the leftover fond and leave this to cook for another 5 minutes.

Build the flavor base

base = veggies + spices + worcestershire + browned_beef;

The veggies should be nice and soft, and most of the moisture should have evaporated. To this we’ll add our spice mix (3 tbsp Chili Powder, 2 tbsp Cumin, 1 tbsp Oregano, and 1/4 - 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper) and let the spices bloom for 30 seconds. Make sure to mix well with your spoon so that you end up with a nice paste of veggies and spices. Add your 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce and mix to incorporate. Finally, add back the ground beef and mix well so that all of the beef is coated in the flavor base.

Your kitchen should smell amazing right about now!

Thicken the chili

chili = Pot.simmer(base + beans + broth);

thicken(chili, corn_starch);

Add the 1 cup of Chicken Broth, a 16 oz can of Red Kidney Beans, and a 16 oz can of Pinto Beans to the pot and mix well. We’ve just incorporated a lot of liquid, but thankfully the bean “juice” has a lot of starch and this will help us thicken the chili while adding flavor. But, since this is a quick chili we want to speed things up by simmering on a slightly higher heat to evaporate some of the liquid, and by adding a thickener.

In a small bowl add 2 tbsp of cold water to your 1 tbsp of Corn Starch. Mix with a spoon or fork and add that slurry into your chili.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, uncovered. I like a drier chili, so I let mine go at least 15 minutes, but you can go more of less depending on your preference.

This extra time also allows all of the flavors to meld and mellow out into something delicious, but it still needs some acidity to cut through the richness of the beef. After simmering, add 1 tsp of Lemon Juice (or vinegar) and mix, then season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Top and Serve

Bowl.serve(chili + fixins)

Turn off the heat and spoon your chili into a bowl and top with any fixins, including but not limited to:

• Tortilla Chips
• Sour Cream
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese

It’s your bowl of chili so have fun with it!