Award Winning Chili

Yeah thats right, this has won AWARDS!

What awards you might ask yourself?

Derp.

LEARN ONE EASY SECRET TO INFINITY CHILI!

I make good chili because I use good ingredients and treat them right. That is the secret. Shh don't tell.

Here is the recipe: Skip to the bottom for the TL;DR recipe.

3 lbs Grass fed beef shanks, browned over charcoal
3T Ancho chili powder
3T Cumin freshly toasted and ground
Oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, bay leaf, garlic powder to taste
2 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1/2 lb Pinto beans soaked overnight
1/2 lb Kidney beans soaked overnight
2 x 28 oz cans of San Marzano Tomatoes

 Grated extra extra sharp cheddar for garnish

Beans: 
The key to cooking beans is when you add salt. If you salt the water at the beginning they can take 2-3 times longer to cook then in unsalted water. If you don't salt until the end the beans have no salt and thus no flavor penetrating deeply. It really all depends on how much time you have to cook your beans. The longer you have the better your flavor is going to be because you can add salt earlier.

Unsalted beans will go from dry to cooked in about 45 minutes, Add salt immediately and you can expect about 2 hours of cooking to reach the same tenderness. I usually will salt about half way through to maximize the flavor while shaving almost an hour off the cooking time.

If you find beans to be too magical for your tastes, cover your dry beans in water and bring it up to a boil. Remove it from the heat for 1 hour then dump the water and rinse the beans. This will remove a big chunk of the complex sugar which are the "magical" components in most beans. This will however also remove a good deal of the bean's flavor.

Meat:
The shank is the toughest piece of meat on a cow. It's also the most flavorful. These shanks are basically a cross section from the thigh of a cow. This would be the bottom of a ham on a pig.

The beef shanks are on the right. 

Although this is the toughest part of the cow, it's ideally suited for making chili. The meat will slowly simmer with the beans for hours giving it plenty of time to tenderize, break down, and extract flavor from both the meat and the bone. The extra collagen in the meat with slowly break down and thicken the body of the chili

I also charcoal grill the meat before adding to the pot. I used to brown the meat in the stew pot, but the bones tend to scrape non-stick surfaces and the flavor of charcoal grilled meat is absolutely heavenly. All of this caramelization and smoke will pay off in the final product.

Ancho Chili Powder:
I love dried ancho chilies, they have a great flavor and are easy to make into a chili powder.

This is a dried Ancho chili pepper, it has a raisin like texture and a slightly bitter flavor. I toast them briefly in the oven at 350F until they poof up.

They are ready to be ground in a spice grinder. I grind these along with a bunch of cumin seed I have toasted as well.

Cooking:

I soak my beans overnight then start boiling them in my chili pot. I heavily season the water that I am cooking the beans in with all of my spices. After about 30 minutes I add in the beef shanks that I have browned over charcoal.

In another pan I brown onions and garlic with the same mixture of spices. I add this to my chili pot along with one can of tomatoes. I simmer lightly for about 2 hours. At this point I remove my shanks and slice the meat off the bone in 1cm cubes. I remove the marrow from the bones and eat them on crackers along with anyone else in the room that I am obligated to share the best part of the whole meal with.

I return the meat to the pot and simmer the chili for another hour to further breakdown the meat. I add the last can of tomatoes and simmer for another 15-30 minutes.

I serve with extra extra sharp cheddar cheese grated on top.

TL;DR recipe:

3 lbs Grass fed beef shanks, browned over charcoal
3T Ancho Chili powder
3T Cumin freshly toasted and ground
Oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, bay leaf, garlic powder to taste
2 Large onion
5 Cloves garlic
1/2 lb Pinto beans soaked overnight
1/2 lb Kidney beans soaked overnight
2 x 28 oz cans of San Marzano Tomatoes
Grated extra extra sharp cheddar for garnish

Directions:

1. Season soaking liquid will spices
2. Boil beans in soaking liquid in an 8 quart chili pot for 30 minutes
3. Add grilled beef shank
4. Salt the chili lightly. It will cook down
5. In a separate frying pan sautée onions and garlic with spices in olive oil until browned
6. Add to chili pot and simmer lightly for 2 hours
7. Remove shanks and cut meat into 1 cm cubes
8. Put the meat and bones back into the chili and add the first can of tomatoes
9. Simmer for 1 hour
10 add the second can of tomatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes.
11 serve with extra extra sharp cheddar.

-NOM