I don't think I've ever had chili con carne. But the picture in Kenji's book looks incredible.
I prepped the chile paste a few days ago and froze it in 1/2 cup aliquots. Now I get to use it.
Started with trimming and cutting up the chuck roast (actually 2 small ones). Kenji goes into the why in the book but he has us only browning half of the meat.
Remove the meat and cook the onions.
Then you add microplaned garlic (luckily I still have that bag of pre-peeled garlic from the pasta), cumin, and dried oregano. I'm making slightly less than the recipe is for but I forgot to reduce the amount of cumin. Oops.
Then you add in all of the meat, chile paste, and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil. Then you can let it simmer on the stove or stick it into a 200-250 degree oven. I'm not totally sure why but I love putting pot roasts in the oven so that's what I opted for. Either way, leave the lid slightly askew.
See you in 3 hours.
Once out of the oven you sprinkle in maseca until you get the broth as thick as you want.
Beautiful.
Kenji recommends cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, corn chips, etc. The usual toppings for chili. I had cheese, sour cream, and some of my favorite tortilla chips.
Oh and a salad with a blood orange olive oil vinegarette courtesy of Missy.
Everything was great. I was worried the meat wasn't tender enough but it was fine, held itself together but could cut into it with my spoon. The broth with the chips...perfect.
The one thing I keep thinking about is the chile paste. It's not as life altering as I thought it was going to be. Was it better than chili powder? Absolutely. Would I go out of my way to make it if finding the dried chiles was difficult? Probably not. If I found myself with dried chiles, freezer space, and a little free time I would probably make a couple batches of it and just keep it there to use when needed.
That looks great!
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