The Meat Hook

Recipe for 20 Gallons of Chili

Ok. Before you get crazy and even start to consider making 20 gallons of chili please make sure that you have either A) enough people to eat all of your creation or B) enough freezer space to deal with whatever you have left over and C) enough huge stock pots and range top space to cook all of it (yes, you can do it in batches).

Got it? Great.

Now borrow a big car or SUV and head out to get:

10 pounds coarse ground beef

10 pounds coarse ground lamb

5 pounds coarse ground pork

2 grocery bags of dried Guajillo chiles

1/2  grocery bag dried Pasilla chiles

1/2 grocery bag dried Pulla (Puya) chiles

1 produce bag of fresh red chiles, roasted

20 pounds dried beans ( a mix of red, pinto and chickpeas is nice, but please yourself)

3 super-jumbo-sized cans of white or yellow hominy

4 jumbo cans of diced tomatoes (not Italian style)

20-30 pounds yellow onions, roughly diced

15 heads of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped in a food processor

5 lbs fine corn meal

2 large containers of ground Cumin (about 12 cups)

3-4 cups black pepper, ground medium

Kosher salt to taste

Optional items include:

Soy sauce (a little dab’ll do ya)

Garlic powder

Onion Powder

Ground Coriander

Texas Pete hot sauce

Get Cooking!

First thing: Start your beans soaking over night in over-sized containers (they plump when you soak ‘em). If you want to make your chili less gassy you should change the water two or three times.

The next day stem, seed and vein all of your chiles. Completely submerse all the chiles in hot water and cover for at least an hour. Make sure to cover them or you’ll pepper spray yourself with the steam.

Next, brown off all your meat and strain of the fat. Now sweat all of your onions and garlic in the left over meat fat. Reintroduce your meat, add spices, tomatoes and simmer.

Meanwhile, purée your chiles with their steeping liquid (if it’s too thick add more water, stock or beer) until it is a thinish, fine paste. Add your chile paste to the rest and stir in your beans. Thin with water or stock, add salt and simmer for 1-2 hours. Watch your heat! Stir early and often lest you get a thick layer of burnt-on chili on the bottom of your pot.

Next add the Hominy, correct the salt seasoning and let simmer for another 45 minutes.

Is everything tasting right? Bland? Salt. Fatty? Red wine vinegar. Fatty and not spicy enough? Texas Pete. Too thin? Add corn meal.

Once you’ve gotten everything dialed in try to let it rest overnight in the fridge to marry the flavors.

We like to serve our chili with sour cream, fresh cilantro and a thirty rack of luke warm Busch.

-TLM