Help me become a chili maven

I realized 'tother day that I do not have a good chili recipe. Acknowledging the controversy of what a 'good chili' is, the kind of recipe I'm looking for

-has beans in it
-has beef and/or pork, either cut into pieces from a larger chunk OR ground, but isn't too greasy
-has a complex spice/flavor profile . . . a little sweet, hot [but not too hot to serve to less spice-enthused guests], maybe has a couple different kinds of dried peppers in it, maybe a little chocolate, probably some beer.

There are so durned many chili recipes in this glorious world, I don't even know where to start. Pointers on where to look, anyone? Any recipes you'd like to post? I found a short thread on the subject here, but I'm looking for some more input. I'm planning to make several batches over the winter and hopefully post on my quest.

Giovanna

Just a tip for you -
I know I've posted a recipe here somewhere, and everyone's got one. In the end, it's just chili. It's a stew. Many of the principles are gonna be the same, but when you tweak it to what YOU like, then you'll be your own maven. So, I have just a tip for you: "grocery store*" chili powder is an abomination, imo. It's basically salt, and a bunch of old stale cumin, and that's exactly what it tastes like. The very first time I made chili and chose to omit chili powder, I vowed to tell anyone who would listen. A variety of ground chiles, ground cumin, fresh garlic, fresh chiles, good quality smoked paprika, maybe a hint of chocolate - that's what's gonna make you a maven, not someone else's blend of stale spices.


*Like that Mccormick brand stuff.

I taught myself how to make pretty darn good chili a couple of years ago, based on two things: the advice in this thread, notably a post by Edzo himself, elakin (which I borrow from extensively in the text below), and a recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. I had to bring it to a school function and getting to taste other folk's chilis, I felt plenty good about the complexity and flavor of mine afterwards. Here's the method I arrived at, as Seebee suggests, from this basic pretty solid outline, improvise and do what you like.

Mike G's Frontera Meets Edzo's Meets LTHForum Chili

1. Make a batch of Bayless's Essential Sweet and Spicy Ancho Seasoning Paste. (This is why you won't need any old crappy chili powder.)

2. Dice an onion, sweat it in a dutch oven or big pot of some kind in a little oil. Salt and pepper it.

3. Dice 1/4 to 1/2 pound of stew meat, saute until fully cooked, then keep cooking until almost dry. Spoon out some of the grease and water (if there is any).

4. Add 1/2 of Bayless ancho paste, some cumin, a little mustard and cinnamon. Fry the spices and paste with the meat for a bit till dry-ish.

5. Add a bottle of dark beer. Reduce until nearly dry.

6. Add a large can of crushed tomatoes, and a small can of tomato sauce. Add a large can's worth of water. Allow to simmer for an hour or so.

7. Add two cans of light red kidney beans. Stir, cover if consistency is what you want, leave uncovered if it's still too watery. Now's the time to adjust spicing-- which could mean, add salt and pepper; add more cinnamon or cumin or a touch of coriander; add hot sauce; add a slug of apple cider vinegar; whatever it seems to need.

Seebee - thanks for the reminder about 'chili powder'.

Mike - that was just the sort of thread I was looking for. Somehow it didn't come up in my search, just the other one. I should have known that a group as food obsessed as we are would have have covered the topic more exhaustively.

Giovanna

Way, way back in the day, Mrs. B. found the Heartland Cafe's recipe published somewhere and we used that as a foundation. It was veg. but obviously there was no problem adding meat to it. We almost always just make one batch of each for any chili function.

This was so long ago it may have been pre-Bayless, pre-Whole Foods---when the seas boiled and Lincoln Park was still a sketchy neighborhood.

But it was a pretty good recipe with some surprising, though not illogical ingredients. We have long since lost it but I recall that a bit of tamari was employed as well as some honey, along with most of the usual suspects. (No store "chili" powder, even then.)

Perhaps Heartland still uses the same and would even part with it again if asked. Meanwhile, chili weather is definitely here and I'm going to go check out that old thread for some new ideas.

I definitely recommend using a combination of fresh and a variety of dried chiles. Toast the dried chiles in a dry cast iron skillet and then grind them in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle (this is my "chili powder"). I don't really have a recipe, or at least I've never done chili exactly the same way twice, but here's one that I posted in the smoked meat thread a few months ago: viewtopic.php?p=279967#p279967

Three words- Bad Attitude Chili.
http://chile.netrelief.com/recipes/bad_attitude_chili_recipe.shtml

My tips for chili have mostly to do with that least-regarded of ingredients: the beans. I have never been satisfied with canned beans, as you just can't get much flavor into them without cooking them to mush. So start by soaking dry beans in something flavorful - say, dark beer. Fry your onions, garlic, and spice paste (in animal fat, preferably; it has such an earthy affinity with beans) and add your beans and cooking liquid. Don't add the salt or tomato product yet - wait for the beans to reach an al dente (for lack of a better term) consistency and then you may add salt or tomatoes; this will set the skin without making the beans hard. Some people will tell you - perhaps rightly - that it makes no difference when you add salt and tomatoes; I wouldn't know, as I always do it this way and the beans always come out perfectly, so I haven't seen fit to tempt fate.

Also, don't forget to add an acidic element. Peperoncini vinegar is always good.

To address a bout of insomnia, I did a bit of casual googling and found the recipe that mrbarolo referenced for the Heartland Cafe's Chili.

This one covers a lot of what you have asked for:

Ingredients:

8 Ancho & Chipotle Chiles (available from Penzey's Spices), stemmed and seeded
12 C water
8 TB vegtable oil or bacon fat
6 LB chuck roast, cut into ½ to ¾ inch cubes
10 cloves garlic, minced
8 jalapenos, seeded and minced
4 TB each ground cuming and oregano, toasted until frangrant in a dry pan
2 TB salt
6 TB masa harina

Directions:

Simmer cleaned chiles in water for 30 minutes
Heat 1 TB oil in a pan and sear the beef in batches, puring off liquid and adding oil, until well browned. Set aside
Remove chiles and save the liquid – now a deep red/purple. Chop chiles into smithereens and set aside.
In a large, heavey-bottomed pot, saute garlic and jalapenos in the remaining 2 TB oil until soft. Add cumin and oregano and fry until fragrant.
Add beef and chopped chiles to the pot. Add just enough chile broth to cover the mixture.
Add salt, cover and bring chili to a boil. Reduce heat and cook at a low simmer for two hours.
Add masa harina.

I only use about 6 C of water for the soaking and add stock and or beer if needed.