Foodie Friday -- Mag's Chili

Personally, I think there are as many chili recipes as there are ingredients in one's pantry. In other words, limitless.

If you have meat, tomatoes, and chili powder, you can make chili.

And there are billions of varieties of chili powder, which means a gazillion varieties of chili.

Hub's work place was having a chili cook-off, so I made chili.

But we've been iced in. I couldn't go to the store. I had some regular ingredients, and some not so normal ingredients, on hand.

Again, chili is one of those 'dump' recipes: Dump stuff in, let it cook, taste, and adjust seasonings

This was the result.

Mag's Chili

2 lbs ground beef, divided (I used 93% fat free beef, so I didn't bother to drain it)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup dried onions (forgot to buy a real onion, oops)
2 cups chopped brisket (fat removed--adds a smokiness)
2 16 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel tomatoes, hot habanero variety (no idea why I bought it!)
1 3.5 oz chopped green chilies
1 small can tomato paste (6 oz?)
3-5 heaping Tbls Top Hat chili powder (depends on chili powder and freshness of aforementioned chili powder) (link takes you to Pendery's order page for Top Hat chili powder)
@ 1 Tbls kosher salt (don't oversalt! Use less, until it cooks a little and add more if needed)
1 12 -oz amber lager (I used Old Scratch Amber)
2 cups homemade enchilada sauce (that had been in the freezer for awhile--the link provides the recipe)
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
@ 1/4-1/2 tsp. chipotle powder, (sprinkled in to taste)

Brown 1 pound of ground beef. Add rest of ingredients (the second pound of beef will melt into the liquid with no chunks), except kidney beans. Cook about 30 minutes, taste and adjust seasonings. Add kidney beans. Cook for another 30 minutes to an hour to cook down and meld flavors.

Enjoy! And don't burn your mouth like my hubs did!

Tips & Tricks:

• most of my tips and trick are in red within the recipe.
• again, you can make it as mild or as spicy as you like
• If you want to brown both pounds of ground beef for larger chunks, by all means do so. This is just what I threw together. Make it your own.
• season lightly with salt at the beginning, because when it cooks down it might be too salty--you can always add more--I did!
• I prefer flaked Kosher salt. It has less harshness than iodized table salt
• If I hadn't used my chopped Poblano peppers from the freezer in another recipe I would have tossed in about 1/3 cup. . . . or jalapenos . . . or Serrano chilies. . . or what other spicy chilies that were on hand at the store. . . . if I had been able to go to the store.
• I threw the beans in there because I wanted to clear out my pantry a little. . . not because the recipe needed beans.

Later, Peeps!