My chili is something that I am actually pretty proud of. I have placed in a few chili cook offs with it. It is loosely based upon Alton Brown's Chili recipe (found
here) but definitely has been tweaked to what I like.
If you are making a traditional Texas red chili, it would be chunks of meat (kinda like stew meat) and no beans. My wife prefers beans and ground meat over the Texas red so I make it to please her most often.
2 lbs ground meat (I normally use both venison and beef but either will work).
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 can black beans
tomato paste
chili powder (I make my own)
cayenne pepper
brown sugar
32+ oz of salsa
Start off by browning the meat and then add it to the pot (normally I use a crockpot). Add the cans of beans (and the juice). Add the tomato paste and add enough salsa to make the volume of chili you want. Add chili powder and cayenne pepper to taste. My chili powder has a different type of burn in your mouth from cayenne peppers so I balance them. I then add brown sugar to add some sweetness, once again to taste. Cook on low until heated through. The spice will grow as you cook it so you may need to add additional brown sugar as this will help cut the spiciness. I then thicken it with powdered Arrow root.
This is the basis to my competition chili as well but I can't tell you all my secrets. :smiley_bril: