Serious Texas chili cook-offs treat tomatoes as optional. My thought is that they're fine, as long as they don't make up that much of the volume. More than a small tomato per 2 pounds will start getting in the way of the meat.
There's chili and there's chili and beans. Both are fine, but they aren't the same. Chili doesn't have beans. My recipe changes slightly almost every time I make it. But as far as the meat goes I like to mix it up. I'll use cubed steak 1 lb. and ground steak 1 lb. That way their are solid pieces of meat plus the ground up meat for consistency, meat flavor, and it soaks up the chili flavor, and spills it into your mouth when you eat it. I also use some suet you get from a butcher. It's basically like lard, and just adds great flavor. Of course cumin, chilis, and chili powder are incredibly important as well.
Enjoy! I did this recipe with a coarse ground turkey/chicken combo last winter (been watching my health...except for the drugs, alcohol and cigarettes of course) and it came out really well.
This is what's funny to me...add a few beans...not chili...but throw in tomatoes turning it into Italian meat sauce...still chili. I just see it as a Texas pride thing, and to simplify the capacity to be snobby about it, beans were chosen as the evil ingredient.
You don't know what you're talking about, and you're good people and that's cool and all, but really, you just don't know what you're talking about.
i think most people dont really understand the history of chili - the whole "no beans" thing is just something they have been told their whole life and accept. there is no legitimate reason for not having beans in chili. its just a cliche. kind of like saying "gene simmons is ugly" - people have always said that, but if you look at the man, he is actually quite handsome. the reality is that the people who invented chili as we know it in texas didnt have any hang-ups about beans - it was often all they could afford. ragging on people for putting beans in their chili is like a bunch of richie riches ragging on poor people for using frenchs mustard instead of grey pupon. and how many of these "no bean" snobs use pre-packaged seasoning instead of real chilies? what is so legit about that? ive read alot of history books and i dont recall cowboys busting out the lowrys out on the chisholm trail.
This thread made me want chili. So bought all the ingredients and started cooking. But the cumin in Germany is Asian cumin, which is actually caraway. dammit. I was sooooo close!
ive only made chili a handful of times so probably so. actually the first couple times i made it was the best - i think im trying too hard now to follow a set recipe instead of following my gut, george dubya-style. and i know you probably think otherwise, but i really dont put beans in my chili.
Well, wendy's chili does have beans it, so I suppose it would qualify as authentic under the "jo mama program of chili deregulation".
