Chili con Carne

I was at a Mexican grocery store and was inspired by all the dried chili’s they had and decided to make chili con carne.  I usually make chili and don’t put a lot of spice in it because I have family (and often myself) that can’t handle the heat, but I wanted to make a more authentic version with diced beef chuck and a mixture of fresh and oven-roasted chili’s. This version does not use any beans, so I decided to serve it over steamed rice and heated up some black beans that I mixed into the rice.  I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated as a guideline and made some cornbread with honey butter to go alongside.  The flavors were deep and complex with the different varieties of toasted and fresh chili’s, and the beef chuck was fall apart tender.  It is very easy to toast the dried chili’s in the oven and after they cooled I put them in a spice/coffee grinder and ground them up to make the flavor base.  After sautéing the beef and onion, you add the remaining ingredients and let it cook for 2 hours and thicken it with a mixture of masa harina or cornstarch and water slurry.  Delicious and authentic!  Click here for the recipe….