Not Bobby Flay’s chili (but really good)

Not Bobby Flay's ChiliSo back when it was bitter cold (about three days ago), I decided to make chili. What’s more comforting? And I looked up Bobby Flay’s recipe for Red Beef Chili. Something different. Something gourmet. And, as it turned out, something completely impossible for me to accomplish.

I have a short attention span and I realized that a recipe with 20 ingredients was never coming off my stove. Especially because my beloved Publix does not carry a lot of the ingredients he calls for in the recipe. It’s okay – let Bobby Flay be Bobby Flay. He’s a really great chef. But here’s what he wanted me to scour the greater Nashville area to find:

  • Thai bird chile: I know of one place that has them and that’s the Interasian Market. And they are growing on a tree by the check-out stand. I do not believe they are meant for the patrons to pick.
  • Cascabel chile powder: I have never heard of it.
  • Chipotle pepper puree: I can only guess at what this is. There is no recipe within the recipe for it.
  • Pasilla chile powder: No idea.
  • New Mexican chile powder: I would like to travel to New Mexico to find some but that would add another $1,239 to the cost of the ingredients what with the plane ticket and hotel room.

Plus the recipe requires an immersion blender, which I do not have. I would like one. If anyone out there wants to gift me one, I’ll go back and try this again.

However. HOWEVER. I got maybe halfway there. I used the round steak. I used the beer reducing with the beef in the pan (great idea – so many other applications). I used the chiles I could find (poblano and jalapeno). But, the good Lord forgive me, I added beans to the chili. I know, I know.

Part of creating a recipe is taking someone else’s good ideas and manipulating them into your own good idea. This chili is a good idea. King Daddy ate three bowls of it. And, always a good thing, it freezes beautifully.

 

Not Bobby Flay's chili (but really good)
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 pounds of round steak, cubed
  • 1 ½ tablespoons cumin
  • 1 bottle of dark beer
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 poblano pepper, cored, seeds and veins removed and diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeds and veins removed and diced
  • 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1 package of mild chili seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 15.5-ounce cans kidney beans, undrained
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
  2. Heat the oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium high heat.
  3. Salt and pepper the beef chunks and add them to the pot in small batches, browning all sides. Add the cumin and stir it into the beef for one minute. Add the beer and bring it to a boil. Continue boiling until the beer has been reduced to the point that it is only a thick glaze on the meat. Remove the meat and reserve.
  4. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pot and throw in the red onion, poblano pepper and jalapeno pepper. Saute until the onion is beginning to turn brown. Add the beef back to the pot along with the tomato sauce, chili seasoning, salt, chicken stock and kidney beans.
  5. Put the pot in the oven and pot’s lid slightly ajar. Cook for 3-4 hours until the beef is fork tender and easily shreds.
 

One Comment

  1. Julie
    JulieReply
    April 2, 2014 at 5:41 pm

    continue boiling the beer to the point that it is only a thick glaze on the meat…and how did you end up with any meat “reserved” by the time you finished the rest of this project? cuz I’m pretty sure I would have been eating that and it would have been meatless chili in my house.

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