Wade’s Not-So-Texas Style Chili

Often the winner of the chili contest is a marvelous cook who uses perfectly-planned preparation and precision to produce something wonderful to eat. And then there’s me. My first-place chili was the result of a recipe I found that day on the internet, a midnight run to Kroger when said recipe only produced half a crock pot worth of chili, and generous amounts of “seasoning to taste.”

The following recipe is as close as I can get at recreating the creative process that led to victory:

Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, smashed
2 4 .5-ounce cans chopped green chiles, drained
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3/4 cup chili powder
1 14 -ounce can diced tomatoes with chiles
1 to 2 tablespoons green hot sauce
3 cans dark red kidney beans, drained
1 can tomato paste
2 cans whole stewed tomatoes

Directions
Toss the beef with 1 tablespoon each brown sugar and salt in a large bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the beef in batches until browned on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes (do not crowd the pan). Transfer to a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the onion to the skillet and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chiles, cumin and chili powder and cook 3 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups water and the diced tomatoes and simmer, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker…

…at this point, my recipe only half-filled the crock pot so I ran to Kroger at midnight and came back with the stewed tomatoes, dark red kidney beans, and tomato paste. The kidney beans are what transformed the recipe into Not-So-Texas-Style territory.

Add tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, and dark red kidney beans (make sure the beans were drained), cover and cook on low, 7 hours.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon brown sugar and the hot sauce to the chili. Add extra salt, cumin, chili powder, and hot sauce to taste.