One of the more enjoyable aspects to cooking is the experimentation that happens. Each of us has our own signature to how we cook along with the spices and herbs we play with.
Out of the many dishes we cook, our “Grillers Choice Chili”, is a lot of fun because you can break down the chili seasoning to what you want it to taste like, making it sweeter or hotter for your tastes.
Chili seasoning is like curry seasoning in that there is no such thing as a curry powder, or a chili powder any more than there’s one pepper or hot sauce. They are a blend of herbs and spices and each blend may produce a slightly different batch yielding different results. There’s a lot of wiggle room for trial and error when making your own seasoning, never mind the actual ingredients you may or may not choose to use.
Here’s a chili seasoning recipe we use from time to time and it does vary each time we make it. We love to cook, “free hand”, so when we cook there are no teaspoons or measuring, only a shake and an instant knowledge of when you shook your shake just enough.
For those requiring precision, here’s a ‘spoon’ sized breakdown of the spices and herbs we’ll use.
2 tablespoons chili powder1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons Grillers Choice Seasoning
1 teaspoon oregano
1 pinch ground clove
1 teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch ground cinnamon
Now for our Grillers Choice Chili recipe:
2 pounds ground beef1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 28 ounce can diced tomato
1 16 ounce can of kidney beans, drained
1 16 ounce can of pinto or red beans, drained
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 onion diced
2 stalks celery chopped.
1 sweet bell pepper chopped
2 bay leaves
Using a deep oven proof skillet, start browning your ground beef.
If you’re using low fat ground beef you can add the onion, garlic, with the chili seasoning mix and brown all at the same time. High fat ground beef, brown first, drain and rinse and set aside. Add onions and garlic to the pan and cook until soft, then add beef, and the chili seasoning mixture.
Once browned, add the cans of tomato sauce, diced tomato along with the cans of beans.
Add chopped celery and chopped sweet bell pepper.
Bring everything to a simmer, add 2 bay leaves, cover and let cook for an hour.
Add more water if required or desired.
Serve with fresh hot buns on the side for ‘cleaning’ your bowl and preparing for a second helping.
Suggested shredded cheese and chives for condiment.
And until the end of 2019 you can try Grillers Choice for 2 dollars off! Just add to your cart and use coupon code ‘SampleGrillers’ at checkout.