Great Chili

Here I combined recipes from Jennifer Steinhaur, an avid cook and baker who works in The New York Times Washington bureau, and from chef, teacher, author Gail Monaghan .

This was the best chili I have ever made and I have made chili hundred of times! My changes/additions to Jennifer's recipe and Gail's are noted below (Gail=GM); Bruce=*):

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound ground bison or ground dark turkey(I made pork chops the night before and used 2 that were leftover. I cut the meat from the bone and diced and put meat and bone into pot.)
• 1 large red onion, chopped (GM)
• 2 carrots, roughly diced *
• 1 celery, roughly diced *
• 6 cloves garlic (GM) (I used 3 crushed and minced.)
• 1 12-ounce bottle of beer
• 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (I used espresso.)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chile sauce
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (GM)
• 2 tablespoons chili power (GM)
• Half a serrano or other hot pepper, seeded and finely chopped, or to taste (I used 3 tablespoons of Frank's Hot Sauce.)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 2 15-ounce cans kidney beans
• 1 15-ounce can cannellini or other white beans

Preparation

1.

Place a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat. Add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add the meat and sauté until browned, then transfer to a plate. (I skipped this entire step as I used the leftover pork chops.)

2.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic to the pot and stir for 1 minute. Take two large sips from the beer, and pour the rest into the pot. Stir in the tomatoes, coffee and tomato paste.

3.

Add the brown sugar, chile sauce, cocoa powder, hot pepper, cumin, coriander, cayenne, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, Frank's Hot Sauce, salt and kidney beans. Return the meat to the pot. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour.

4.

Add the white beans to the pot and simmer over very low heat, partly covered and stirring occasionally, for 1 to 2 more hours. (Longer cooking improves the flavor.) Adjust salt and cayenne pepper as needed and serve.