Cal-Mex Chili Mole
Difficulty: Easy
Cooking Time: 4 hours
Serves: 8
In these hard times, it’s important to do anything in your power to comfort the people around you. The best way we know how to do that at ITADAKIMASU is through food. Chili is one of those hearty, home-styled comforts that seems to always taste better when you make it at home, and even better when you share it with a loved one. This chili is super versatile, you can eat it by itself, with some cornbread, on hot dogs, or even on off the carpet.
Food Dictionary:
Mole: A traditional Mexican sauce and marinade that uses a combination of fruit, chili pepper, nuts, and spices such as black pepper, cinnamon, and cumin.
Chili: A spicy stew originating from Texas. It contains a variety of chili peppers that can be incorporated into the dish in different forms.
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 can of chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
These are very spicy so if you cannot tolerate spice use ½ of a pepper or 1 pepper.
2 small onions
4 cloves of garlic
4 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 can of sweet corn
1 24 oz can of red kidney beans
1/3rd cup of cocoa powder
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
2 liters of beef stock
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
The Process
Process the vegetables by dicing the onion into small pieces and mincing the garlic
Small dice: ¼ in x ¼ in x ¼ in
In a heavy bottom dutch oven sear the ground beef in 1 tbsp of vegetable oil until one side has become browned and crusty. Break up the rest of the ground beef and continue to brown until the meat has roughly cooked through.
Remove the beef from the pot and set aside. Drain all but 1 tbsp of beef fat from the dutch oven and toast all your spices for about 45 seconds.
Then add your onions and sweat them for about 10 mins on medium heat.
Take 1 chipotle pepper and 1 tsp of adobo sauce and finely mince it into a paste.
These are incredibly spicy but add a nice smoky flavor. If you like your food spicier you can add another pepper.
Add the minced garlic, chipotle pepper, and ground beef to the onions and saute for another 3 mins
Deglaze the pan with the beef stock and scrape all/any accumulated fond off the bottom of the pan.
Cover and bring to a simmer for 2 hours stirring the bottom of the pot occasionally, so nothing burns.
Drain and rinse the red kidney beans and add to the chili 1 hour before it is done cooking.
Drain the corn and add in the last 15 mins of cooking.
Serve any way you want, this goes well with some cornbread, Fritos, sour cream, green onions, avocado and even over rice or noodles.
Depending on what you serve it with you may want to adjust the thickness of the stew. The longer you cook it for the thicker it becomes and that makes it better by itself or over rice. Alternatively, if you make it thinner it becomes better as a soup or with some noodles.
