Sweet and Heat Chili

As part of our adventures in the kitchen, it seems only proper that every man (and woman for that matter) should have their own signature chili.  I have tasted numerous different people's chili recipes, and they truly are unique to the individual.  So I started my quest to design my own chili. It's still a work in progress but last night saw a lot of success.  The chili is fairly traditional containing mostly meat with some veggies and beans.

I mixed some Worcestershire and Chipotle Tabasco into the meat before browning and then during I left it with some decent sized pieces.  I know there is a lot of debate on whether or not to use beans in chili, but I like beans, so I used kidney beans.  For the veggies, I sauteed them in a separate pan first and then added it to the browned meat.  I used onions and green peppers left in slightly larger strips (just a little smaller than you would have for fajitas) and a couple Serrano peppers.  To bring it all together, some crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste to thicken it up a little.  Like in most of my savory cooking, I had to add a good helping of GARLIC!!!!!   It was seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, a little cayenne, and lots of chili powder. To finish it off I also added about 1/4 c. of Splenda.  If you're not into substituting, you can always go with the real stuff instead of Splenda.

The above result looked great and tasted amazing.  It was a great balance between sweet and heat and the meat came out very savory.  I would be content to have this be my signature chili but before I do, there are a couple of flavors I would like to test out.  A little nutmeg?  Bitter cocoa even?  Only time, and lot more cooking will tell.

-L&A