Falco's Fall Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Red hot chili peppers
8 Serrano peppers

3 Habanero peppers

3 Bulbs of garlic

1 Large white onion

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon each of the following powdered spices

   Cayenne pepper 

     Cumin

   Paprika

   Hot chili powder

1 tablespoon Carolina Reaper pepper flakes*
4 Pounds chopped chili beef

1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce

3 tablespoons masa or all purpose flour

1 (16 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained

Optional

Sour cream & extra sharp cheddar to taste

* Carolina Reaper flakes are quite spicy and in fact are hotter than the Ghost Pepper..  For those who can't stand this much heat simply omit this.

Yesterday was the first cool fall day we had here in West Michigan.  I decided to make a pot of spicy chili to chase away the chill.  Made with beef, red kidney beans, fresh Serrano, habanero, red hot chili peppers, garlic, and onion this recipe makes 8 bowls of chili. For some extra heat there's a tablespoon of Carolina Reaper pepper flakes.  It's a good amount of work prepping all the fresh veggies but I knew it would be worth it for the taste it would impart.

The aforementioned veggies

Preparation:

Remove the stem from each pepper and cut in half lengthwise. Removed the seeds or you can leave them in for extra heat of course. Cut the halves in half again lengthwise and proceed to dice into smaller pieces.  Cut the white onion in half and dice each half as well.

A nicely diced onion if I do say so myself

Vegetables all diced

For the garlic remove the cloves from the bulb.  I 'peeled' them buy hitting them with a meat mallet to make removing the skin easier and then hit them again to slightly crush each clove.  I like chunks of garlic in my chili, but you could also dice each clove or run them through a garlic press.

After the vegetables were all prepped I sauteed them in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over medium heat,  and added a teaspoon of salt.  I reduced the heat to low after 3 minutes and covered the pot and let them cook for 10 minutes.

 

Next I added the chopped beef and the tomato sauce along with the powdered spices and Carolina Reaper pepper flakes, bringing the heat up to medium until the chili began to simmer.

Four pounds of beef

I reduced the heat to low letting it simmer for about an hour, stirring it several times.   I drained and added the red kidney beans and simmered for an additional 10 minutes and then, to thicken the chili a bit, I added the masa flour mixed with a small amount of water.  Do this slowly while stirring  until it is incorporated..

Looks pretty tasty!

After ladling some chili into a bowl it was topped with extra sharp cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.  It really chased the chill of the fall day away!

For those who live in the Grand Rapids area all the ingredients except the Carolina Reaper Flakes were procured at Forest Hills Foods, an excellent store with a great selection.