I love this time of year. It is the perfect time to break out all of our favorite chili recipes and of course be on the lookout for new ones to try. Want to start a good food fight – ask several close friends from different parts of the country if they prefer their chili with or without beans. Then step back and watch the sparks fly.
I grew up in Michigan so my indoctrination into chili included lots of beans (usually kidney). Penny grew up in Texas – beans? Those don’t belong in chili. Luckily we love to experiment and are willing to try just about anything at least once. Our chili adventures run the gamut:
With meat, without meat.
With beans, without beans.
No vegetables. Lots of vegetables.
I remember the first time we had Cincinnati style chili – what’s this? Looks like spaghetti. But it sure didn’t taste like spaghetti. It is now one of my favorites.
Running a spice company is without a doubt the greatest job in the world. Well maybe not the greatest but it sure ranks way up there in my book. We get to eat lots of interesting dishes in our quest give people better healthy food options. This means lots of experimentation. With us constantly adding new recipes to the site we have inadvertently developed some of the weirdest eating habits.
Getting ready for an upcoming chili email we get to eat 4 or 5 different kinds of chili in a one week period. It also means that we haven’t had the same dinner more than 3 or 4 times in the last year – boring same old same old does not reside at our dinner table!
It’s actually kind of fun to eat this way as it is a really interesting way to compare various recipes. Now the one challenge is once a meal is ready to eat it isn’t really ready to eat… yet. Penny shoots all the recipe photography for our web site. So once dinner is ready it goes into the makeshift studio before we get to eat. Gives a whole different meaning to shooting your dinner.
Chili is one of my favorites because the key to a really great chili is the seasoning (what else would I say). And we like lots of spicy goodness. As we’ve had the chance to test so many chili recipes we’ve found that you want to season early and often so that you get a great depth of flavor.
So what have we learned in the last couple of years from immersing ourselves in several weeks of wall-to-wall chili? There is no one best chili recipe but there are some general rules of thumb to follow if you want to eat as healthy as possible:
Lean Protein
If you aren’t into vegetarian chili pick your meat wisely. Choose chicken breasts, turkey breasts, turkey sausage, lean beef (preferably 90% and not ground) or any combination of these.
Beans
Sorry those from Texas. Try lots of different beans – in addition to kidney beans experiment with black, white, red or garbanzo (a.k.a. Chickpeas). These are loaded with fiber and good for you.
Vegetables
The problem with most chilis is they don’t fit a healthy well balanced meal approach so don’t be afraid to add plenty of vegetables. We’re especially fond of course of whole tomatoes, onions and garlic but you can also add some surprisingly good taste without overpowering the flavor. For this we love sweet potatoes and carrots (both add some great color as well), but one of my favorite vegetables for chili? Tomatillos. Love these.
Watch the sodium
Choose your canned tomato sauces, chunks and pastes wisely. Go with the no salt added variety. Be aware that canned beans also tend to be sky high in sodium. We like to make our beans fresh in the slow cooker a day in advance. Easy and way more flavorful, especially when you add some spices.
Drop some acid
No this isn’t a reference back to the 60’s or 70’s add a splash of some fresh squeezed lime or some apple cider vinegar. This adds some extra depths of flavor.
Don’t skimp on the spice
Experiment with adding spices. Add them early. Add them during and finish off the dish with them as well. This gives your chili bold flavor but it doesn’t have to be spicy hot (unless you want it to be).
Some of our favorite chili spices – cumin, Mexican oregano, coriander, allspice, clove, onion, garlic and of course lots of different dried chiles. My favorite dried chiles for chili are the holy trinity of Mexican chiles – ancho, mulato and pasilla (none of these are too hot) but any of the Mexican chiles do well here depending on your heat tolerance – chipotle, Serrano, habanero and pasilla de Oaxaca (these last four pack some more smokiness and some punch).
Looking for some great chili secret ingredients? Try these – beer (preferably dark), Saigon cinnamon and cacao powder (pure unsweetened chocolate). These competition chili secrets add even more depth and complexity.
