You may be asking yourself what a Yankee like me is doing making a true Texas-Style Chili recipe. Well, I asked myself the same question about 6 years ago when I was working in the test kitchen of Saveur magazine. I was testing a recipe called Woody DeSilva’s Championship Chili – a true, stick-to-your-ribs, award-winning Texas Chili. Until that life-changing day, I knew chili as a simmered pot of seasoned ground meat with tomatoes, vegetables and beans (pause for collective gasp from Texans). In the lone-star state, things are different. Chili is made with meat that is cubed and cooked slowly in a chile sauce with no beans in sight.
While I still like my ground meat-and-beans chili, this Texas Chili is something really special. Here are a few reasons why. First, the meat is cut into ½” pieces. Cutting the meat into these small pieces is certainly a labor of love (you might want to ask your butcher to see if he or she can do it for you – it’ll save you about 25 minutes of prep time), but the work is certainly worth the effort. These small pieces of meat are seared in the pot, which adds the first layer of flavor. Then, tomato paste is added and caramelized for a full 10 minutes. This technique mellows out the sharp or overly sweet flavors of the paste and transforms it from bright red to rust in color, adding a second, more mature layer of flavor. Then, after the dried chiles and spices are added along with water, the meat-and-spice mixture is cooked at a very gentle simmer. This allows those small pieces of meat to completely absorb the flavors of the sauce – right to their center – and become so completely tender that they practically shred at the mere sight of a fork. The finishing touch is a few spoonfuls of masa harina – Mexican corn flour used to make tortillas and tamales. The corn flour thickens the sauce, giving it body and adding a subtle corn flavor.
The resulting bowl of chili was a very distant relative (like 3rd cousin twice removed) from my usual bowl of ground meat and beans. It was hearty, thick, deeply-flavored, spicy and so, so worth the extra effort.
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided
- 2 lbs. beef chuck, trimmed of hard fat and cut into ½” pieces
- Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- 2½ medium onions, finely chopped (about 4 cups)
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
- 2 tbsp. dried oregano
- 1½ tbsp. chili powder
- 2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- 1½ tsp. paprika
- 1½ tsp. hot sauce
- ½ tsp. ground cumin
- 2 tbsp. masa harina (corn flour)
- Heat 6-qt. dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp. oil and heat until oil shimmers but does not smoke. Season beef with salt and pepper. Working in 3 batches, add beef to pot and cook until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes per batch; transfer beef to plate and set aside.
- Heat remaining oil in pot; add onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally and scraping up brown bits from bottom of pot with wooden spoon, until onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Return beef and any accumulated juices to pot; add tomato paste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tomato paste caramelizes, about 10 minutes. Add oregano, chili powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, hot sauce and ground cumin. Cook, stirring, for about 1 minute more.
- Add 2½ cups water to pot; stir, scraping up remaining browned bits and bring water to boil. Reduce heat to lowest setting. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until beef is completely tender, about 2 hours. Stir in masa harina and season with more salt, if desired. Cook until chili thickens, about 5 minutes more.