Made 3-pepper chili this weekend.
Made 3-pepper chili this weekend. Just fell in love. I’ve always made chili with beans like my mom’s recipe, but beans are a no-no for me, since they drive my blood glucose through the roof.
Mom’s chili was always like the consistency of a vegetable soup but chunky and hearty. There was always at least two kinds of beans (kidney, dark or light, and pinto, sometimes navy, or black bean), hunks of ground beef, and seasoned with celery, garlic, lots of onion, mild chili powder, and of course, tons of stewed tomatoes to make it have a lot of broth which I love–I mean we HAD to dunk Ritz crackers and bread into it!). The version I made Saturday was thick, meaty, rich, spicy, and more complex in flavor. Not better, just different, and less carb-y, by far (5 net grams per 6 ounce serving). I’m pretty proud. I was worried it would be weird.
In a heavy soup pot, I sauteed some onions and a small rib of celery (both diced very finely), and browned two pounds of 80% lean ground chuck seasoned with salt & pepper and some dried oregano (rubbing the leaves between my fingers to release the oils).
While the meat browned, I lightly blackened a jalapeno pepper and some sweet red bell pepper strips over the gas flame, and added those, along with of a quarter of a large green pepper and a whole large poblano, both diced (those not pictured) to the browned meat & onion mixture.
To that, I added 2 cups of stock–half beef and half chicken, and the following spices to the pot: A heavy handful of smoked paprika, and equal parts hot chili powder & ground cumin. To that, a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon and 2 drops of maple flavoring were added (I used this: https://goo.gl/PYxa73).
I was out of tomato paste. Since I wanted a tomato-ey base to this chili to hold up all the spices/heat, but make it thick and rich instead of soupy like Mom’s, but also have it blend into the background instead of stand out–I took a 29-ounce can of tomato sauce, poured half out to save for another dish, and added in 1 can of diced tomatoes (the liquid for which, I drained into the pot with the two broths earlier) and used my immersion stick blender to make it thick like tomato puree consistency. I stirred that into the pot and added 1 tablespoon of erythritol (granulated natural non-sugar sweetener people use when they want a slightly sweet texture/crystallization of sugar–it’s 70% as sweet as sugar, with almost no glycemic effect).
I let it simmer for about two hours on the stove, and it thickened up nicely! Will make again and again. Don’t worry too much about all the cinnamon, maple flavor, and sweetener–those didn’t make this chili taste weird, it just made it richer and added a layer of flavor I can’t describe, that sort of helped complement the heat of it.
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PS – I did not drain the fat after browning the beef… oops. I can eat it without worry, but was still relieved when I noticed most of it just re-incorporated itself into the meat as it simmered.
Try adding baking chocolate or cocoa (unsweetened) next time.
Really ups the richness
Yes! I was totally going to add some shaved Baker’s brand chocolate and forgot, and by the time I remembered, it was finished.
The sweet helps you tolerate the heat. Had a few dishes like that.
Yeah, but I should be clear, it doesn’t really add much sweetness.