True Texas No Beans Chili

I LOVE chili!  With beans or without beans, it doesn’t really matter to me. But TRUE Texas chili doesn’t have beans.  So as a Texas girl (and someone who recently gave up eating beans), I felt like it was high time to post a no beans chili recipe.  This recipe is supposedly an award winner, and I don’t doubt it!  It’s wonderful.  Not too tomato-y, and complex flavor through the addition of bacon, beer, and and unsweetened chocolate.  I also love that the recipe calls for beef brisket instead of ground beef.  I found some finely chopped stew meat at my grocery store and used that successfully, but dicing up your own brisket would probably be more cost effective.  The original recipe makes a HUGE batch (and was a little too spicy for us), so I’ve included my adjustments below.

True Texas No Beans Chili

recipe adapted from crazyhorseghost

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound of bacon, cut into very small pieces
• 1 onion diced very fine (you can use red or white onion)
• 2 1/2 pounds of lean trimmed small cubes of beef brisket
• 1/6 cup chili powder
• 1/2 heaping tablespoon minced fresh garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (if you want spicier chili, add more!)
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 tablespoon oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon ground sea salt
• 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cans green chiles (each can is 4 ounces)
• 1 1/2 bottles Corona beer (you can also substitute apple juice)
• 14 ounces diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 3 ounces tomato paste
• 1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, very coarsely chopped

Place your diced up bacon , your diced onion and your garlic in a large skillet. Cook until your bacon is well cooked and brown before you rake the skillet into a large stock pot.

Now you will want to add all your other ingredients and bring your large stock pot up to a boil. Then reduce your heat to a low medium and cook at least two hours stirring your pot up from the bottom often to be sure your chili does not stick. After two hours reduce your heat to a low simmer and cook two more hours stirring often up from the bottom of the pot.

Your chili should now be done and ready to eat. Test it out by trying a couple pieces of your meat. It should be tender by now and starting to come apart. If its not tender keep cooking on simmer until your meat is tender. Add another 12 ounce beer or 12 ounces of apple juice if your chili gets to thick. If you want more hot add more ground cayenne pepper.

Serve chili with a garnish of shredded cheddar cheese , fine chopped cilantro , sour cream, a side of cornbread!