Trenton's Texas Chili (Saturday, February 5, 2011)

So, word is that Texas chili is made with chunks of beef, not ground beef, and never ever ever has beans.  Well, I'm from Texas and I like beans in chili, but I also like big chunks of beef so this "Texas chili" departs from the unofficial rules in that it does have beans, in this case both pinto beans and black beans.  If anything I'd say that old cowboys on the southern plains and rolling hills of the Texas country side had more beans to spare than they did cows and in all likely-hood their chili contained more beans than anything.  The most important part of a chili is that you make it how you like it I guess, and the way I like it is really spicy with big chunks of steak and beans.  The ingredients this particular time around were 3 lbs sirloin steak, bacon fat, serano peppers (bottom), dried New Mexico chiles (top center), dried chiles pasillos negros (top right), dried chiles de arboles (left), beef stock, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, pinto beans, black beans, two bottles of Shiner Bock (this makes it more Texas than anything else I suppose), onion, garlic, brown sugar, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, Worchestershire, salt and pepper.  Say that 3 times fast.

First, I set large chunks of sirloin marinating in garlic, Worchestershire, olive oil, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, I set some bacon cooking in my pot to render the fat.  Why sweat garlic and onion in butter or olive oil when you can do it in bacon fat? I removed the bacon and most of the fat just leaving enough in the bottom to cook my finely diced yellow onion and about 3 full bulbs of garlic until translucent.  I removed this from the pan and then browned my sirloin in small batches to keep the pan hot.  After all the beef was seared slightly I added back the onions and garlic along with a can of beef broth, two Shiners, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, the beans and all of the peppers (with the seeds of course).  This was brought to a boil and then left to simmer 4 hours while I finished off the other 4 beers.  I tasted a few times throughout the cooking to adjust the salt, sugar and acid levels.  What started as something quite runny ended thick enough to hug a spoon under 1G of force.  Half of the pot was eaten topped with sour cream and cheese.  The other half was reserved for the next day where it was mixed into the "Souper" Bowl with a half dozen other chilis of all varieties at Willie's Super Bowl party.  I really enjoy chili, but two days of it is probably two too many for the old sphincter.  Slight case of "Ring Sting" as my mom calls it!  Go Pack Go!