The Texas BBQ Forum

I've been wanting to do an authentic, traditional Texas Chili for a long time. I've been reading quite a lot about it's history and the dilemmas what actually is traditional and what is modern etc. Finally I found this "recipe" on the ICS website.

"Cut up as much meat as you think you will need (any kind will do, but beef is probably best) in pieces about the size of a pecan. Put it in a pot, along with some suet (enough so as the meat won't stick to the sides of the pot), and cook it with about the same amount of wild onions, garlic, oregano, and chiles as you have got meat. Put in some salt. Stir it from time to time and cook it until the meat is as tender as you think it's going to get."

That sums it up to me, keep it simple. Obviously there are no beans or no tomatoes in a traditional chili. So, I decided to use what ever I have available and not to try anything too fancy. This is my take on Traditional Texas Chili.

Meat. I diced up 2lbs of chuck and browned it in two batches in the Dutch Oven.



I had some dried Ancho and Pasilla chilies. Soaked them for a while and mashed them up in a blender with a cup of water to a nice paste.



Only fresh ingredients for this chili are onions, garlic and some fresh chilies from my garden. Two fresh Anchos for the fun of it and one fresh Red Savina for some serious heat. On the plate you can see also some wild oregano and two bay leaves.



Sauteed 2 large onions, added a whole chopped up garlic and last added the browned meat. As I was drinking coffee at the time, poured also a good cup or two of freshly brewed black coffee to the chili.

For the spices I threw in the oregano, bay leaves, some salt and a heap tablespoon of ground cumin.




An hour or two later the chili needed a bit more liquid. Opened a beer, gave half to the chili and drank the other half myself.




Nice and sunny day for sitting in the garden and smelling the beautiful aromas of chili from the Dutch Oven.




In the end mixed a tablespoon of masa harina to a dash of water and mixed it in to the chili to thicken it up.




Served the chili with crackers, chopped onions and grated cheese. Lovely taste and a fantastic after taste. Hot enough, as it gave me hiccups during the first bowl...




Anyway, it was so good, that had to have another bowl right after.




Cheers,
Sterno

Sterno, hard to go wrong with a meal like that. Looks great from here. You might want to think about replacing the crackers with cornbread.
Course crackers aren't bad either.
This link will really confuse you, but check it out any way.CF
http://www.g6csy.net/chile/recp-texas.html

Most excellently done compadre!

Nice chili Sterno. I could eat a couple of bowls myself.
Great job.

Sterno: It looks like you did a super good job making traditional Texas Chili.

Here is a very old recipe for chili. It makes a lot of chili, but of course you could scale it down.

In the 1930's a man named Bill Richards ran a cafe here in town. His place was locally famous for the chili they served. I have heard lots of the old timers speak of it fondly.

5 or 10 years ago the local newspaper began a quest for his chili recipe. Finally one elderly lady who had been a waitress at the cafe in her younger years revealed that she had it written down. The paper published her recipe:

BILL RICHARDS CHILI
8 lbs. coarse ground meat (the best is from around the neck bones.)
3 lbs. suet
4 pods dried red chili peppers
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp. cumin seed
10 pods dried chili petines
1 tsp. black pepper
1 Tablespoon salt

Method: Place meat and suet in a large skillet and brown until the suet melts. Pour this into a large covered pot.
Boil all the 4 chili pods in a pint of water until they are soft.
Open the pods and let seeds out in water. Set aside.
Grind the red hot peppers first and then grind the chili petines, garlic and cumin seed. (Follow with three crackers to clean the grinder)
Add salt and black pepper and dump into the meat. Use a wire strainer - pour red colored water off the peppers into the pot. Do not allow any seed in pot.;
Simmer about 45 minutes covered, stirring occasionally.

I have made it a few times and it IS good. Notice that it has no onions, tomato products, or chili powder in it.
You ought to try it some time.
Stan

Thanks Stan! I will keep that in my files and definately give credit to Bill anytime someone asks whose Chili it is.

Chili looked good, and I like the dutch oven method you used. You have definetly got it going on!

Thank you gentlemen!

I'm still not sure how to serve a traditional Chili. I did *not* want to serve it with tortilla chips, as that sounds too Mexican to me. Cornbread was definitely on the top of my list, but as I'm fighting a tough flu here, I just did not have the energy to cook that as well. Some references mentioned, that Chili was served in a bowl with crackers and therefore I went for those.

So, any more ideas how to serve a historical, traditional Chili? How did people eat their Chili in the past?

Stan41 wrote:Sterno: It looks like you did a super good job making traditional Texas Chili.

In the 1930's a man named Bill Richards ran a cafe here in town. His place was locally famous for the chili they served. I have heard lots of the old timers speak of it fondly.

...

You ought to try it some time.

Stan, thank You SO much. Amazing piece of history there and a recipe to keep and try out soon for sure!!

Sterno

Sterno: In Texas serving chili with saltine crackers is THE traditional way. A long time ago they didn't eat it with anything else.

Although I like it very much myself, serving grated cheese of any kind on chili is not traditional.

Chili served in a chili bowl with plenty of saltine crackers alongside is traditional

Stan

Stan, thank You so much for this information!

I KNEW it .. should have left the cheese out! I never ate my Chili with cheese before anyway. Looks like I have to make another PROPER Traditional Chili experiment!

Cheers,
Sterno

Don't get me wrong. I like cheese with chili. I also like to eat green olives alongside the bowl of chili. But if I were doing a traditional chili serving there would be nothing but chili and saltine crackers.

Stan

hey Sterno we normally have crackers with our chili too. but on occasion we have been known to have it with jalapeno cornbread. at any rate, here is another recipe that you might want to try. if you do, let me know how you liked it.

in the meantime, this might make for a good evenings read. it is the site of terlingua where the chili championship is held...
http://www.chili.org/terlingua.html





Step 1
5lbs. lean coarse ground beef or chuck tender cut into 3/8-inch cubes
2 tbsp. cooking oil
2 tsp. season salt

Step 2
In a four-quart heavy saucepan, add the above ingredients while browning the meat.
Step 3Add one 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and one 14-½ oz. can of beef broth then bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for ½ hour.
Step 4
2 tbsp. Mexene chili powder
3 tbsp. onion granules
2 tbsp. paprika
4 tsp. garlic granules
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. cayenne
Combine spices then add mixture to pot. Drop in 2 beef and 2 chicken bullion cubes.
Continue to simmer for 1 hour. Add spring water as needed.
Step 5
10 tbsp. Mexene chili powder
6 tsp. cumin
3 tsp. garlic granules
1/2 tsp. dark brown sugar
2tbsp brown sugar
2 package Sazon Goya or 1 tsp. MSG (optional)
2 tsp. “Original” Louisiana Hot Sauce
Combine spices then add mixture to pot, simmer chili for ½ hour adding spring water as needed to desired consistency.
Add salt to taste and extra dashes of “Original” Louisiana Hot Sauce for additional heat.

Thanks n2dabluebbq! That recipe looks great, might have to try it out one day too!

Cheers,
Sterno

Sterno, looks great. A lot of folks like beer in the pot but I don't much care for it, just my preference.

I learned from my dad that it makes great enchiladas. Quickly fry a corn tortilla in a bit of oil just long enough to get a crispy/chewy texture, maybe 10 or 20 seconds on a side. Drain it briefly on a paper towel and lay it on the plate. Put about 1/3 cup of chili across the tortilla and roll it up. Repeat until you have three enchiladas. Now grate some yellow or white onion on top of them, ladle some more chili over that, and top it with cheddar cheese.

Man....I'm gettin' hongry.

chilehed wrote:Sterno, looks great. A lot of folks like beer in the pot but I don't much care for it, just my preference.

Thanks! True, I must say I did not enjoy too much the beer flavor in the chili either. My idea was to experiment a traditional type of cooking and to use just the available liquids. When I started, I had coffee. In the middle of the cook, used the beer as that's what I was drinking..

I doubt I use beer again. Just plain water or some stock, beef or chicken. When I cook my regular, not so traditional chili, I use often coffee. I think that goes really well when used within reasonable limits.

Cheers,
Sterno