It is good!
We all like food. 3 of us like to cook. We have enough crap to outfit 3 kitchens. Maybe even more than that. Food around here is always interesting.
Kathy and I started talking about this a while ago. I think we were talking about the taco meat for the taco pizza, or something, and the idea of making chili with a taco flavor floated. It sounded good, and was a topic we kept coming back to. Over the weeks we crafted a theoretical recipe, and an idea of the procedure.
On impulse theory was put to practice last Saturday night.
It was impulse, so we weren't as organized as we could have been. We ended up using caned beans when all of us would have preferred dry, but that's the way things go sometimes. I ended up being the only one in the kitchen when it came time to put it together so I got to make the final decision of what went into it. Kinda scary, if it had totally bombed I was gonna blame it on the beans....
The first hurdle was getting ground beef with the proper flavor without the packet.
I'm not a fan of the dump a bunch of salsa in the beef and call it taco. Tried that several different ways and it always comes out too bland.
So I surfed the net for taco seasoning recopies, they're all pretty much the same stuff in varying measures.
What I ended up with:
2 teas. chili powder
2 teas. paprika
1 teas. onion pepper
1/2 teas. sea salt.
1/2 teas ground cumin
1/2 teas. oregano
1/2 - 1 teas. cayenne pepper
1/2 - 1 teas. red pepper flakes
1/2- 1 teas. chipotle pepper
Throw it all in a bowl and whisk it.
Whisk it good....
Note on spices: The original recipe called for a 1/2 teas. of garlic powder. I left it out cuz I added 5 cloves of garlic to the meat.
Most of my spices are the cheapies from Shop n' Save. They work just fine.
The onion pepper and the ground chipotle pepper we got from The Olde Town Spice Shoppe in St. Charles MO. It's our favorite spice shop. Their garlic pepper is fantastic.
I went with a whole teaspoon of the various peppers cuz I added some after the beans and everything were in the chili. If I were gonna do this just as taco meat I would start with the 1/2 teaspoon and see how hot it was before adding too much more pepper.
I started browning about a pound and a half of ground chuck.
And whisked together the taco seasoning.
And then it was time for chopping and slicing and dicing.
I minced 5 cloves of garlic.
Course chopped 1 medium onion.
I added both to the meat after draining the fat off.
When the meat was mostly browned I added the spices and 1 cup water and let it simmer till the water was gone.
While the meat was simmering down. I seeded & chopped the peppers.
1 minced jalapeno pepper
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped Anaheim pepper
1/2 chopped green bell pepper.
Added those to the meat and let them cook while I opened the cans....
This time I ended up using 2 15oz cans of Hunts Fire Roasted Tomatoes and 1 15oz can of whole tomatoes, with the juice. Next time:
3 cans Hunts Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce.
I let that simmer for a few minutes and then added
3 15oz cans black beans, drained
1 15oz can red kidney beans, drained
I let the whole concoction simmer for about 30 minutes. Added a 15oz can of refried beans, let that melt in and called it Taco Chili.
This is the fulfillment of a life long ambition for me. I've always wanted to make a good batch of chili.
It's got a gentle bite to it that fades quickly. It'll warm you up without hurting. Good flavor. Goes equally well with just crackers or topped with cheese and sour cram.
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