Makin' Chili

by Chad Miller /// December 17th, 2007

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were really craving some good chili. As she is still in college, and as I subsisted mostly on ramen noodles and Wendy’s during my years as a bachelor, neither of us is very well versed in the culinary arts.

Between the two of us, we didn’t have a single clue how to make chili.

Our appetites not to be deterred, I knew just who to ask. (Google, of course!) My main goal was to find out just what defines chili. Now I am not much of a recipe-follower; instead, I like to understand exactly what I’m doing and why. That way, I can freestyle when I want to or need to.

So I Googled ‘chili’ and examined a whole bunch of recipes. You wouldn’t believe some of the things people put in their chili. Anyways, from looking at all the recipes, I found a number of common elements:

• Meat
• Beans
• Tomatoes or Tomato Sauce
• Onion
• Chili Powder

Of course there are all sorts of variants; some leave out the meat or beans, but most recipes include both. Most included the onion. Some recipes had a list of ingredients as long as my arm. Judging by the sheer variety of chili recipes, I figured it’s pretty hard to go wrong, so I made a batch of “basic chili” using only the ingredients I listed above.

Here’s the ratios I used: 1 pound of (browned) ground beef, 2 cans of beans, 1 can of crushed tomatoes, and a half an onion, chopped up.

From that base, I just seasoned to taste with chili powder and left it to simmer 1-2 hours until suppertime. And boy, it was darn good. I never dreamed a good meal (with a Tupperware vat full of leftovers in the fridge) would be so easy to make, either. At least not legitimately, and by ‘legitimately’ I mean ‘without a microwave’.

In the future, I’ll be able to experiment from this base, refining the recipe until I can make world dominating chili. You heard it here first.

I hope you readers weren’t terribly bored by my chili-related ramblings. If so, complain, and I’ll find a more interesting topic next time.