Tennessee style Chili?

[Guest Jamie]

The chili here turned out well... Plenty of flavor and spice, but without setting you on fire.

... though I can do that too, if that's what a person likes. And yes, 'shrooms are delicious and give the chili a slightly different taste.

[Guest earthworm]

"No beans preferably. Texas has the best."

Chili without beans is hot dog sauce.

[Mr. Brooks]

Just made a batch last night in the slow cooker.

Venison stew meat, ground venison and pork sausage.

And this for heat.

[KahrMan]

Rooster Sauce

[Mr. Brooks]

I ended up having to take the chili to work for a luncheon that I didn't know about until this morning. It's all gone now

I don't think anyone knew it was venison. I think it needs more heat next time though.

[JAB]

Technically pretty much any soup or stew that makes use of chile peppers for a major part of the flavor profile or whatever are 'chilis'. That means traditional Hungarian goulash, Mexican pork and hominy soup and others as well as what we typically think of as chili. I like to make different styles depending on my mood.

Often I try to go for something different - something that in my mind seems a little more 'south of the border'. In that, I use chicken and pork (traditionally Mexican peasants probably didn't have access to a lot of beef - beef is more TexMex than authentic Mexican, to my understanding.) In that case, I use black beans, fresh cilantro and a few types of fresh chilis. I often add ground clove to the spices I use in that version.

The batch I made this past weekend was intended to be more of a version of good, old American chili. I don't think that there is, exactly, a Tennessee style (just go to a local chili cook-off and the variety of types will show you what I mean.) Instead, as with a lot of things, I think we blend influences from other areas. I started with a small bag each of dried pintos and red kidney beans which I soaked the night before. The local grocery store didn't have much in the way of beef or pork stew meat, which I would have preferred, so I went with ground chuck.

Two years ago I had a bumper crop of chilis so I smoke dried a variety of peppers from my garden. I have them in zipper seal bags in the freezer. They are still just as fresh as the day I put them in there and I used a few of these in the chili - one type called simply 'red chile' that was smoked/dried over mixed wood, one pecan-smoked serrano, one pecan-smoked anaheim and one true chipotle - a jalapeno smoked over pecan wood (pecan or mesquite are the traditional woods for smoking chipotles.) I also have a few pint sized jars of tomato sauce I made from tomatoes from the garden that I had briefly grilled (to make the skins turn loose and give a nice, smoky taste to the sauce) then made into sauce and pressure canned so some of that went in, too. Throw in cumin (lots of cumin - I love cumin), dried cilantro, onion powder, black pepper, salt (not as much as I would have liked - I'm trying to cut down on sodium) just a dash of coriander, a pinch of cinnamon, - not enough to really taste, just enough to help build the flavor profile - a few cloves of garlic (minced), a large onion (sauteed the onion and garlic with the meat which I browned before adding to the pot), a little bit of cocoa powder (for body), some dried Oregano (had to use Italian as I didn't realize I was out of Mexican Oregano), some canned tomato paste (low sodium - blech, but it's better than skyrocketing blood pressure), about a tablespoon of white vinegar (to bring out the flavors), one fresh, minced cayenne (from the garden), paprika and a little sugar to bring the flavors together and you pretty much have my basic chili. I made fried cornbread to go with it.

I haven't yet tried bhut jolokia (ghost chiles) but I did recently buy a sauce with those in it. I'm waiting until I am with a bunch of my chile-head buddies before I open it. I want to try a fresh one at some point. By 'try' I mean slice off a sliver. I eat fresh habaneros a little bit at a time, usually cutting them into six or seven pieces. I know better than to pop a whole one at once, much less the hotter ghost chiles.

Edited November 10, 2010 by JAB

[Guest carbonarcher]

Jab,

Great info! Make sure that there is one person not eating the ghost chilies! So they can call 911! lol

[Guest carbonarcher]

JAB,

You are the only person that looks at what ingredients are of the Southwest and impliments them! I have always tried to teach my young chefs, look at the area and what are the things that they use? What grows in that area?

Great Job!

[JR2ATN]

I use coarse ground beef and red kidney beans. For heat I'll add anchos and chipotles and roast some poblanos on the grill. If it's not hot enough at the end I'll adjust with some habanero sauce. I also use a LOT of cumin, a small block of unsweetened chocolate and some whole cloves as well as onions, garlic, bell pepper, etc. etc.

In the spring I also make a white chili using chicken, white beans, and mild green chilies like poblano and bell as well as a healthy amount of fresh cilantro. It also has a little bit of bacon for flavor and instead of crushed/pureed tomatoes and beer that form the base of the other chili, this one has chicken broth and you blend in a white sauce (milk, butter, flour) and top with some monterey jack cheese.

[Guest spoolie]

Made a batch of turkey chilli with ghost chili's.....Wow, great....and I ground a 1/4 pound into power to add to everyday items.