The Best Chili Ever

I’m not terribly impressed with the picture… but there was no way I couldn’t blog about this. This is the chili to end all chilis. I don’t know if I’ll ever need to make another chili again. Well… scratch that. I know I want to make another chili, but I don’t think the Canadian would stand for it. When I made this for him last week, he turned to me and said: “I think this is the best chili I’ve ever had.” He claimed he wasn’t even hungry before I brought it out, but he ended up having two servings that night and finishing the leftovers the following afternoon. Are you ready for it yet?

As usual, the original recipe for Beef and Dark Beer Chili, which I found on epicurious, needed some tweaking. Funnily enough, Jen over at Life’s Too Short to Eat Fat Free Cheese had tried the recipe just a day before I had intended to. I was a little worried, because she didn’t seem impressed, but I went along with my plan, changing the following aspects of the recipe:

1. I used double the jalapeño, but no chipotle chili.

2. I doubled the tomatoes asked for in the recipe, and I used whole canned tomatoes with juice.

3. I added a few tablespoons of tomato paste.

4. I added a lot more beer (Guinness)… about double.

5. Instead of sautéing the veggies in olive oil, I just drained most of the beef fat and fried them in that.

The end result was a lot saucier than the recipe called for, and it was quite spicy, but I served it with sour cream and grated cheese. My policy for chili making is to taste as I go… I cooked this chili for almost two hours, and I checked it every time I stirred, adding more spice and liquid as I saw fit. In the end, it paid off, and the Canadian loved it.