Super Bowl Chili
Well, the Pats are AFC Champions — and that means we’ll be featuring some good Super Bowl recipes over the next several days. After having made several chilis from other peoples’ recipes, I decided to give it a shot from scratch on my own. Though this is only a “first draft,” I’m quite pleased with the result.
Some notes: Chili purists will likely criticize me for not using beef chunks; I’ll try it next time, but for now ground beef is my preference. Though slightly unusual ingredients, the dark chocolate and rice vinegar really brought the chili together in a magnificent way — the chocolate gives it a deep, silky flavor and the vinegar freshens things up a bit. The dry four-chile blend I use was made possible by Chef Paul Prudhomme’s ground, dried Magic Chiles (Star-K hashgacha). You may alternatively use 1 teaspoon of the “chile powder” of your choice. I gleaned the technique of “browning” the tomato paste from my kosherized Jambalaya recipe, which I’ll share soon — it gives the tomato a darker color, and caramelizes the natural sugars for a more complex flavor.
Jabbett’s Chili From Scratch (for a crowd)
Updated January 2006
2 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 large yellow onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small can tomato paste
1/4 tsp. ground ancho chile
1/4 tsp. ground chipotle chile
1/4 tsp. ground arbol chile
1/4 tsp. ground New Mexico chile
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes
2 28-oz cans tomato puree
1 can red kidney beans
1 oz. pareve dark chocolate, chopped
2 tsp. rice vinegar (optional)
- In a large, heavy skillet or saucepan, cook ground beef until done and crumble. Remove from pan and reserve.
- In same pan, add vegetable oil and saute onion at medium heat until translucent, 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add tomato paste and continue stirring for five minutes.
- Add ground chiles and cumin, stir briefly until fragrant.
- Return beef to pan, then add diced tomatoes, tomato puree, and kidney beans.
- Set heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, for one hour.
- Add chocolate and stir until completely combined.
- Just before serving, stir in the vinegar.
This can also be prepared in a crock pot. Perform steps 1-4 as directed, then combine onion mixture, beef, tomato products, and beans in a 5-quart slow cooker. Continue with step six.
If you’d like to prepare this for Shabbat lunch, follow crock pot instructions, but add the vinegar before leaving on low/keep-warm setting until ready to eat. (The vinegar will help prevent the beans from getting too mushy.)
Serve with tortilla chips and corn bread.