This Year's Chili
Scott’s Chili Recipe #18
9 pounds Stew Beef, cut into 1” chunks
6 @ 28 oz. cans diced cut & peeled Tomatoes, with liquid
54 oz. Guinness Stout (12oz/bottle - have extra on hand)
1 1/2 cups Cider Vinegar
6 tbsp Tamarind syrup
6 tbsp Molasses
36 oz. Tomato Paste
12 large dried Ancho chiles, chopped medium
36 fresh Jalapeno Peppers, ribs and seeds removed
12 fresh Habanero Peppers, ribs and seeds removed
9 dried Carolina Reaper Peppers
18 cloves minced Garlic
3 medium Red Onions, cut coarse
1 1/2 cups chopped Yellow Onion
6 tbsp powdered instant Expresso (grind to fine powder)
9 tsp Cumin, plus more if needed to taste
9 tsp powdered Chipotle Pepper (Preferably Kalustyan’s Green Jalapeno)
6 tsp Mignonette Pepper (Penzey’s)
12 tsp Oregano
6 tsp Smoked Paprika
3 tsp powdered Garlic
3 tsp Thyme
3 tsp Allspice
Olive Oil as needed
Safety Precautions for working with the peppers:
Wear surgical gloves while cutting up the peppers and have a glass of milk, beer or wine nearby for washing the fumes out of your throat, especially when frying. There will likely still be some burning sensation on your lips and nostrils. Be very careful to avoid touching your eyes or any mucous membranes with anything that has made contact with the peppers. Have as much ventilation as possible while frying the pepper mixture. Children and those sensitive to fumes may want to leave during the cutting and frying.
Cut the stew beef into small pieces and toss in a plastic bag with the espresso powder, cumin, 1/3 of the chipotle, 1/2 of the paprika, and the powdered garlic. Pound the spices into the meat. Remove and fry, draining thoroughly when removing from the frying pan. The beef will have to be fried in several batches where the first should have a small amount of olive oil to start but subsequent batches may use some of the liquid from the beef frying. Add oil as needed. Place the beef in a large pot with the tomato ingredients and liquids (including the stout) over a low flame.
Cut up the red onions. Prep the fresh peppers, garlic and the white onion, and chop medium fine. Chop the Carolina Reaper peppers fine and the Ancho peppers medium, being very careful in handling the dried hot peppers. Put all but the red onions in a food processor with a chopper blade and pulse until medium finely chopped but not pureed.
Add oil and some of the liquid back into the frying pan, and use this to fry the peppers (dried & fresh) & onions & garlic mixture. Fry until just short of burning around the edges. This will have to be fried up in smaller batches, then added to the pot. Deglaze the pan with some stout and add to the pot.
Add the remaining spices and continue cooking on a low flame, stirring frequently, until the mixture seems to be coming together and the meat is softening. Adjust the spices and other flavorings and liquid as needed. Cook until the meat is soft, adding more stout and vinegar if needed to maintain consistency and prevent burning to the bottom of the pot. This is a very thick chili and is prone to burning to the bottom of the pot.
Serves: A Lot of People. Expect it to take at about 4 hours to make this, from start to finish.