Suzukis Chili Recipe

• By: Suzuki
• Cuisine: American

Here's my favourite chili recipe - its good as is and is easily customized to suit your personal preferences.

• 2 - 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 pounds beef diced (you can use stewing beef, but I'll often use other inexpensive cuts)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 -4 cloves garlic (depending on size and prefernces) finely chopped (NOT run through a garlic press)
• 3 tablespoons chili powder (the fresher the better)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (more or less to taste)
• 1 cup beef stock (or red wine or beer)
• 1 28oz can of pureed or diced tomatoes
• 1 19oz can of beans (drained and rinsed) - kidney, chickpeas, mixed, black, etc.
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 - 2 teaspoons of brown sugar or maplesyrup

1. Heat oil in large pot on high heat, add beef and brown well (about 4 - 5 minutes). Remove from pot and season with salt and pepperl
2. Lower heat to medium and saute onion for about 3 minutes or until softened.
3. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
4. Return meat to pot and add spices and oregano- cook for 1 minute or until you can smell the spices (TIP: Measure all of your spices and oregano into a small bowl so you can add them to the pot all at once).
5. Add beef stock (or wine or beer) and tomatoes. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 60 minutes - longer is better and I usually let mine simmer for at least 2 hours to make the meat nice and tender. If the level of liquid starts to get a little low, you can add more stock, wine, beer or water as necessary, but not too much as this tastes best if its nice and thick.
6. About 15 minutes into the simmering, add brown sugar or maple syrup - this does not make the chili sweet, it just counters the acidity that you often get with canned tomatoes and just seems to enhance the flavour.
7. About 20 - 15 minutes before you're ready to take the chili off the stove, add your beans - adding the beans towards the end prevents them from getting mushy.

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You can increase the heat by adding hot sauce, more cayenne or omit the beans entirely.

I find that using diced beef significantly improves the flavour over what you get with ground beef.

Enjoy!