Carroll Shelby's Chili my way.

Tonight was a great dinner. I'm calling it great because there's no before picture to compare to. Here in Tampa it's been rainy and overcast. We can't call it cold here, it almost never gets cold here. But it was just a really good day for a chili. Chili is great in general, there are no rules with chili. Chili doesn't judge you or make you feel bad. Chili is a reflection of who you are as a cook. In tonight's example, I lazily left the spices up to Mr. Shelby. I didn't have to measure anything, which was nice. I did add enough of my own ingredients to justify to myself that I can call this chili mostly mine. I also changed up how I normally make my chili and honestly I have the recipes I've tried so far to thank. Following recipes has opened me up to new styles of cooking that I know I wouldn't have thought of myself.

This is my chili, I'm very happy with how it came out. The presentation could have been a little better if I would have used more of a traditional bowl but it was hot and using this bowl allowed us to spread out the chili so it would cool. So this post won't necessarily be any sort of review based on my limited knowledge but I'll give a recipe of my own. Of course there's the Carroll Shelby's Chili mix. In the box is a bag of chili mix, a bag cayenne pepper, a bag of salt and a bag of masa flour. I've used the Carroll Shelby Chili mix for years, it's my favorite. I've added different ingredients and cooked the chili up in all sorts of different ways. Tonight though, I really feel like I've found the a great combination with a new style of cooking the chili. So here it is.

This is based on my level of spice that I like and that my wife can tolerate. And like I said, chili is whatever you want it to be, so make the chili you want, but here's what I did.

1 box of Carroll Shelby's Chili mix.
1 1/2 Green Peppers cut into small squares.
1 Avocado sliced - this is optional, it helped cool the spice of the chili without using sour cream.
1 Yellow Onion diced.
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes Original.
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes Hot. If I use 2 cans of the Hot my wife won't eat it. Only took once to figure that out.
1 can 15oz Kidney beans.
1 can 8oz tomato sauce.
Some cooking oil.
2 lbs ground meat. I look for the most lean meat I can find.
Some Sharp Cheddar Cheese - optional and only if you like cheese.

This time I used my dutch oven to cook the chili. If you don't have a dutch oven, stop reading this and go get one. Get a good one, spend some money on it. There are so many things you can cook with a dutch oven. Your kitchen isn't complete until you have one. Without a dutch oven, it's like trying to cook a fried egg without a spatula. So just get one.

Start with the onion. I put some cooking oil in the dutch oven and threw my onions in over medium heat. I put a cook on the onions for about 5 minutes. Then I threw in the meat. That cooked until is was browned. I'd try to give a time but it really doesn't matter, cook the meat until it's brown and cooked.

Once the meat was cooked, I drained the grease and returned the onion/meat to the dutch oven.

Then I started adding the goodies. Based on the recipe from Carroll Shelby, I added the chili mix, the cayenne pepper, salt, tomato sauce, 16oz of water (fill the 8oz tomato sauce can twice, duh). I also add the 2 cans of Ro-tel tomatoes. The Original can I didn't drain, I just added the whole thing. The Hot tomato can I sort of drained off some of the liquid just to try to help tone down the heat. I also add the green peppers. Let this simmer for a while, like at least 20 minutes or so, really if you can give it more time it's better. Like maybe 40 minutes.

Drain and rinse off the Kidney beans. At some point while the chili is simmering, throw these things in too.

Now the masa flour. This is optional and it's used if you want a thicker chili. We like a thicker chili so we use it. Put the masa flour in a small bowl and add a bit of water. Stir. Add more water if the powder isn't turning into a paste. I think the Carroll Shelby recipe tells you how much water to add but I just sort of eyeball it until I have a nice, some what lose paste. Add that and cook for about 5 or 10 more minutes.

Then you're ready to eat. Start a bowl and add whatever you want - like I said - no rules. Avocado, sour cream, cheese, whip cream, I don't care, whatever makes you happy.

If anyone tries this I hope they enjoy. Then you can show me what you came up with and how my recipe blows.