Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (46 page)
SERVES 6
For best flavor, we like to make this chili 1 day ahead. Select dried chiles that are moist and pliant. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 4 minutes. For hotter chili, boost the heat with a pinch of cayenne or a dash of hot pepper sauce near the end of cooking. Serve the chili with any of the following: warm pinto or kidney beans, cornbread or chips, corn tortillas or tamales, rice, biscuits, or crackers. Top with chopped fresh cilantro, finely chopped onion, diced avocado, shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, and/or sour cream.
3 | tablespoons ancho chili powder or 3 chiles (about ¹⁄ |
3 | tablespoons New Mexican chili powder or 3 medium chiles (about ³⁄ |
2 | tablespoons cumin seeds, toasted |
2 | teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican |
7¹⁄ | cups plus ²⁄ |
1 | (4-pound) chuck-eye roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces |
Salt and pepper | |
8 | slices bacon, cut into ¹⁄ |
1 | onion, chopped fine |
5 | garlic cloves, minced |
4–5 | small jalapeño chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced |
1 | cup canned crushed tomatoes or plain tomato sauce |
2 | tablespoons lime juice |
5 | tablespoons masa harina or 3 tablespoons cornstarch |
1.
Combine chili powders, cumin, and oregano in small bowl and stir in ¹⁄
2
cup water to form thick paste; set aside. Season beef with 2 teaspoons salt; set aside.
2.
Cook bacon in Dutch oven over medium-low heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel–lined plate. Pour all but 2 teaspoons fat into small bowl; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high and sauté meat in 4 batches until well browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch, adding additional 2 teaspoons bacon fat to pot as necessary. Reduce heat to medium and add 3 tablespoons bacon fat to now-empty pan. Add onion and cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeños and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile paste and cook until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add reserved bacon and browned beef, crushed tomatoes, lime juice, and 7 cups water and bring to simmer. Continue to simmer until meat is tender and juices are dark, rich, and starting to thicken, about 2 hours.
3.
Mix masa harina with remaining ²⁄
3
cup water (or cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water) in small bowl to form smooth paste. Increase heat to medium, stir in paste, and simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve. (Chili can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
Make sure you start with a chuck-eye roast that is at least 3 inches thick. The grilling is meant to flavor the meat by searing the surface and smoking it lightly, not to cook it.
1.
Do not cut meat into 1-inch pieces. Puree 4 garlic cloves with 2 teaspoons salt. Rub intact chuck roast with puree and sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons New Mexican chili powder. Using large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, wrap 1 cup soaked mesquite or hickory wood chips in foil packet and cut several vent holes in top.
2A. FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL:
Open bottom vent halfway. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour in even layer over half of grill. Place wood chip packet on coals. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent halfway. Heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 5 minutes.
2B. FOR A GAS GRILL:
Place wood chip packet over primary burner. Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 15 minutes. Leave all burners on high.
3.
Clean and oil cooking grate. Sear meat on all sides until well browned, about 12 minutes per side. Transfer roast to carving board, let cool, then cut into 1-inch cubes, discarding excess fat and reserving juices. Proceed with recipe from step 2 but do not brown beef. Substitute 2¹⁄
2
tablespoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce for jalapeños, add browned beef with juices to pot with crisped bacon and proceed as directed.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Our goal in creating an “ultimate” beef chili was to determine which of the “secret ingredients” recommended by chili experts around the world were spot-on—and which were expendable. We started with the beef—most recipes call for ground beef, but we preferred meaty blade steaks, which don’t require much trimming and stayed in big chunks in our finished chili. For complex chile flavor, we traded in the commercial chili powder in favor of ground dried ancho and de árbol chiles; for a grassy heat, we added fresh jalapeños. Dried beans, brined before cooking, stayed creamy for the duration of cooking. Beer and chicken broth outperformed red wine, coffee, and beef broth as the liquid component. To balance the sweetness of our pot, light molasses beat out other offbeat ingredients (including prunes and Coca-Cola). For the right level of thickness, flour and peanut butter didn’t perform as promised; instead, a small amount of ordinary cornmeal sealed the deal, providing just the right consistency in our ultimate beef chili.
SERVES 6 TO 8
A 4-pound chuck-eye roast, well trimmed of fat, can be substituted for the steak. Because much of the chili flavor is held in the fat of this dish, refrain from skimming fat from the surface. Dried New Mexican or guajillo chiles make a good substitute for the anchos; each dried de árbol may be replaced with ¹⁄
8
teaspoon cayenne. If you prefer not to work with any whole dried chiles, the anchos and de árbols can be replaced with ¹⁄
2
cup commercial chili powder and ¹⁄
4
to ¹⁄
2
teaspoon cayenne pepper, though the texture of the chili will be slightly compromised. Good choices for condiments include diced avocado, finely chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, lime wedges, sour cream, and shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese.
Salt | |
8 | ounces (1¹⁄ |
6 | dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into 1-inch pieces |
2–4 | dried de árbol chiles, stemmed, seeded, and split in 2 pieces |
3 | tablespoons cornmeal |
2 | teaspoons dried oregano |
2 | teaspoons ground cumin |
2 | teaspoons cocoa |
2¹⁄ | cups low-sodium chicken broth |
2 | onions, cut into ³⁄ |
3 | small jalapeño chiles, stemmed, seeded, and cut into ¹⁄ |
3 | tablespoons vegetable oil |
4 | garlic cloves, minced |
1 | (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes |
2 | teaspoons molasses |
3¹⁄ | pounds blade steak, ³⁄ |
1 | (12-ounce) bottle mild lager, such as Budweiser |
1.
Combine 3 tablespoons salt, 4 quarts water, and beans in Dutch oven and bring to boil over high heat. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Drain and rinse well.
2.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Place ancho chiles in 12-inch skillet set over medium-high heat; toast, stirring frequently, until flesh is fragrant, 4 to 6 minutes, reducing heat if chiles begin to smoke. Transfer to food processor and cool. Do not wash out skillet.
3.
Add de árbol chiles, cornmeal, oregano, cumin, cocoa, and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon salt to food processor with toasted ancho chiles; process until finely ground, about 2 minutes. With processor running, slowly add ¹⁄
2
cup broth until smooth paste forms, about 45 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Transfer paste to small bowl. Place onions in now-empty processor and pulse until roughly chopped, about 4 pulses. Add jalapeños and pulse until consistency of chunky salsa, about 4 pulses, scraping down bowl as necessary.
4.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until moisture has evaporated and vegetables are softened, 7 to 9 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile paste, tomatoes, and molasses; stir until chile paste is thoroughly combined. Add remaining 2 cups broth and drained beans; bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer.
5.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Pat beef dry with paper towels and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Add half of beef and cook until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer meat to Dutch oven. Add half of beer to skillet, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan, and bring to simmer. Transfer beer to Dutch oven. Repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, remaining steak, and remaining beer. Stir to combine and return mixture to simmer.
6.
Cover pot and transfer to oven. Cook until meat and beans are fully tender, 1¹⁄
2
to 2 hours. Let chili stand, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir well, season with salt to taste, and serve. (Chili can be refrigerated up to 3 days.)
HOW HOT IS THAT CHILE?
In the test kitchen, we’ve noticed that some jalapeños are searingly hot, while others are mild as bell peppers. We tracked down a number of theories to explain this great variation—and size kept popping up. According to this theory, a small chile will be hotter than a larger one. But when we arranged a tasting of jalapeños of various sizes, there seemed to be no correlation between size and heat. To investigate the matter further, we sent five similarly sized jalapeños to the lab, requesting levels of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin (the compounds responsible for the majority of the perception of “heat”). Sure enough, some chiles were nearly 10 times hotter than others—even though they all looked alike.
One burning question remained: Are there any visual indicators of pungency? No, says Danise Coon of the Chile Pepper Institute, who explained that capsaicin production is tied to the environment. Chiles grown in sunny, arid weather undergo a lot of stress, and stressed chiles produce more capsaicin than chiles grown in temperate climates. (Hot, dry New Mexico is known for producing very hot chiles.)
Until someone comes up with a procedure for diagnosing stressed-out chiles, then, the only surefire way to judge the heat level of a chile is to taste it. If you want more control over the heat when you’re cooking with chiles, start with an easy-to-measure heat source such as cayenne, red pepper flakes, or chili-garlic paste, then layer on modest amounts of fresh chiles, removing the ribs and seeds if you want less heat.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Chili made with chicken promises a lighter, fresher alternative to the red kind, but most of the time, the resulting chili is bland and watery and the chicken is dry, rather than moist and flavorful. We found not one but three solutions to boring chicken chili. To solve the problem of insufficient chile flavor, we used a trio of fresh chiles: jalapeño, poblano, and New Mexican. To fix the watery sauce, we pureed some of our sautéed aromatics (a mix of chiles, garlic, and onions) and broth with beans to thicken the base. And finally, to avoid floating bits of rubbery chicken, we browned, poached, and shredded bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, which gave our chicken pieces a tender texture and full flavor.
