Chili Con Carne
A chili con carne with lots of personality. To achieve a very concentrated flavor, I used beef, many spices from Mexican cuisine, and intentionally didn't add tomatoes (except for a little tomato paste). In contrast, I added two fresh elements: an avocado salsa and a jalapeño cream.
The chipotle chili peppers and guajillo flakes I bought from this site. You can find Mexican specialty products here as well or on emag.
Ingredients
Chili Con Carne
650 g ground beef (or beef-pork mix for a more subtle flavor)
1 large onion
3-4 large garlic cloves
1 tablespoon tomato paste (60 g)
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili flakes (I used guajillo flakes)
2 bay leaves
2 dried chipotle peppers (these are dried and smoked jalapeño peppers)
500 ml water
3 tablespoons oil
1 can red kidney beans (400 g)
salt, black pepper
Jalapeño Cream
200 g buttermilk
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 avocado
1 green jalapeño pepper
2 tablespoons lime juice
zest of 1 small lime
a pinch of chili flakes
salt to taste
Avocado Salsa
8-10 parsley sprigs
1/2 avocado
1 small red onion
2 tablespoons lime juice
Side: rice (50 g rice/serving)
Servings: 4-5
How to prepare chili con carne
- Cover the dried chipotle peppers with hot water and leave them until needed.
- Heat a large pan (28-30 cm) and add the oil. Add the ground meat in 2 batches, stirring frequently until it changes color and no longer looks pink, then you can let it fry a bit if desired. Sprinkle salt and grind black pepper while sautéing the meat. Transfer each batch of meat directly into a pot (preferably cast iron with a lid) that can go in the oven. When removing the meat from the pan, try to leave as much fat as possible in the pan.
- In the remaining fat, add the diced onion and sauté over low heat until very soft and just starting to brown. At that point add the garlic and sauté for another 1 minute.
- Add the tomato paste and sauté while stirring frequently for another 2-3 minutes, until the paste darkens slightly and looks drier.
- Then add all the spices (cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, chili, and bay leaves) and the chipotle peppers (drained, cleaned of seeds and stems, then finely chopped). Sauté for another 1 minute to release the aromas.
- Pour the resulting paste over the ground meat. Sprinkle with salt and grind black pepper. Add the water and bring the contents of the pot to a boil.
- When it boils, put on the lid and place in the preheated oven at 150°C (300°F) for 2 hours. After one hour, check the chili for salt.
- When the 2 hours in the oven are up, turn off the oven. Add the drained beans, mix gently, put the lid back on and leave the pot in the oven for another 30 minutes.
At the end you can skim the chili if the meat was too fatty and you see that a lot of fat has accumulated on top. - Chili con carne can be prepared ahead and kept in the refrigerator. It's better if it has time to sit a bit. The salsa and cream are prepared only when serving.
- Salsa: chop the parsley; finely dice the onion. Put them in a small bowl and drizzle with lime juice. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add the diced avocado, a little salt, and mix gently.
- Cream: Blend all ingredients in a food processor or with an immersion blender. You'll get a light, pale-green cream. You can use yogurt or sour cream instead of buttermilk, but then you'll need to gradually add a few tablespoons of water to get a soft cream.
- For this chili I chose plain rice as a side, just boiled with salt. When serving, place the cooked rice on half of the plate. Put the warm chili con carne on the other half. Sprinkle the avocado salsa over the rice. Drizzle everything with jalapeño cream.
