[Homemade] Chili and cornbread

by TheLadyEve

4 Comments

  1. Recipe:

    4 pounds of coarse ground (chili ground) beef

    2 large white onions fine dice

    3 poblano peppers diced

    3 jalapenos minced

    6 cloves garlic minced

    two big handfuls of guajillo, chipotle and ancho peppers stems removed soaked in hot chicken stock

    Mexican oregano

    1/2 tsp cinnamon

    1 tbs cumin seeds toasted and crushed

    Salt

    Pepper

    Cayenne pepper

    2 cans of diced tomatoes with green chilies

    2 large cans of pinto beans

    I browned the meat in batches, set aside. Then the onions and peppers went into the pot that still had some beef fat in it (if you’re working with a really fatty ground beef you can drain some of the fat but reserve a few tbs for the veggies. Cook until soft. Add the garlic.

    For the chili sauce/liquid component: Put the dried chilies in a pot with about 3-4 cups chicken stock and simmer for a few minutes. While that is simmering, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant. Add that to the simmering pot. Turn the heat off and let sit. Blend in a blender until smooth.

    Add the beef back in with the vegetables and continue cooking. Add pepper, cinnamon, salt, cayenne, and Mexican oregano. Pour over the pepper sauce and bring to a simmer. It will be a little liquidy but it will cook down over time. Add the tomatoes. Cook at a low simmer for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing scorches at the bottom, then add beans, cook another 30 minutes.

    This is a very basic chili. I normally like to take a chuck roast and cut it into small pieces and make a more old-school chili con carne, but stores here were low on everything and I actually got the last of the ground beef and a lot of the whole beef was already gone! This is not super spicy, I would rate it 3.5/10, so if you want it hotter, throw a serrano or two in with the jalapenos and add more cayenne or some chile de árbol.

    For the cornbread:

    1 cup yellow cornmeal

    1 cup all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon baking powder

    1 tbs sugar

    3/4 teaspoon salt

    1/2 tsp white pepper (you can use black pepper, my kids just don’t like being able to see pepper, it’s weird).

    1 cup cream-style corn

    1/2 cup buttermilk

    1/2 cup butter, melted

    Mix the dry ingredients well, then beat in the eggs and buttermilk. Add the cream-style corn and stir well. Fold in the melted butter until incorporated. Bake at 375F until a knife comes out clean (this took about 30 minutes or so for me).

    Note that **cream-style corn** has no cream in it–it’s just canned corn that is canned with its natural starch. It gives a really nice moisture and body to the cornbread.

    2 large eggs, room temperature, beaten

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