Thoughts from the Couch: Back In the Kitchen

Amy was out with the girls again tonight, you know what that means.... CHILI! So, I grabbed the recipe from my last experiment and sought to create a still better bowl of red. How did I fare? Read on, loyal reader, read on...

Bald Man Tom's Skillet Chili, Take Three

The Players

The Pan	12" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	8 oz. chuck roast, cut into small cubes salt 3 oz onion, finely diced 2 clove garlic, minced 3 oz pickled jalapenos, minced ~1-1/2 oz chipotles in adobo sauce, minced ~2 tbsp adobo sauce (from the can of chipotles in adobo) 2 tbsp chili powder 1 tbsp cumin (ground) 1 tbsp coriander seed (ground) 1 tsp turmeric (ground) 2-1/2 c beef broth, plus 3 tbsp 3 tbsp masa harina Vegetable oil

The Method

Season the meat with a few pinches of salt about 5 minutes before cooking begins. Heat the skillet over high heat. Coat the skillet thinly with oil, then sear the meat quickly on all sides, maybe 1-2 minutes max. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. Lower the heat to medium, sautee the onion and garlic until softened a little, about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add the minced jalapenos and minced chipotles, stir and let sautee another 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add the meat back to the pan with 2-1/2 c of the broth, spices and adobo sauce, mix and simmer 5 minutes. Make a slurry with the masa harina and the remaining 3 tbsp of the beef broth, then add to the pan and give it a good stir. Place in a 350 degree oven for 75 minutes.

Makes 2 servings.

Notes

Bummer. I started with a 12 oz cut of chuck roast, but by time I got done trimming it, it was down to 8 oz. Double bummer. I was running low on cumin, so I couldn't bump that up. However, I still had plenty of adobo sauce, so I bumped that up for extra smokiness and heat. I threw in ground coriander seed and ground turmeric from my old recipe because I like what they add (I know they're not authentic, deal with it). I increased the amount of onion and garlic, because I could, and I backed off on the cooking time in an attempt to make it slightly less thick.

Cornbread again (is there any better chili go-with than good cornbread?) but I added the chili powder back in because Amy stated for the record that she wouldn't want any.

The Verdict

Good, but not as good as last time. It was considerably hotter than last time, but was lacking the smokiness of the last batch. Not nearly enough beef, though that's my own darned fault. The thickness was pretty much right on, so dropping the cooking time was a good thing. I think if I were to get a lidded pot, something like a cast iron dutch oven, I could safely bump the cooking time back up. As it is, so much liquid escapes from the pan that the shorter cooking time is needed.

Lessons Learned

Lessee: