I do, for sure
Absolutely adding beer. For depth of flavor I would recommend:
- beer (ipa or stout)
- bacon (cook the bacon first, use some of the grease to fry the peppers/onions/garlic, then re-add the diced bacon)
- Worcester sauce
- Roasted poblanos & chilis (roast your peppers, then skin and dice them rather than putting in raw)
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yes, stout for me, maybe porter.
woos-ter sauce? 
I make my own chili paste using Kenji’s recipe. About 30 minutes of effort and quite good
I ended up making the chili paste. The only ingredient that I didn’t add to the chili was marmite/vegemite, because I didn’t have any.
I only now need to add the masa to thicken (it doesn’t need much). It already tastes delicious, and I’m excited to have some for dinner later tonight. Thanks for motivating me to try the recipe.
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Sorry, but I’ve gotta have Pinto Beans, from dried beans. The bean juice is delicious.
And yes, dried chiles really help.
My turn tomorrow
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This resonates with me too. I chop up soaked Ancho chilies as I have poor availability of others.
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This is my over the top chili recipe, it’s rough as i haven’t written in down for an audience.
Veggies: tomatoes, jalapeño, serrano, garlic cloves, onion.
Meat: ground beef and bacon
Chili paste made out of what is available in pantry such as chipotle in adobo, dried arbol, ancho, pasilla, chicken stock
Spices and other: cumin, cayenne, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, chili powder, coriander, s&p, sugar, worcestershire sauce, black beans, crushed tomatoes, beef broth, crushed tomatoes, stout.
Cook bacon.
Half veggies and smoke for about 1/2 hour before chopping.
Put veggies, bacon, crushed tomatoes, spices and other ingredients (but beans) in pot. Form loaf with beef. Put pot in smoker on bottom and beef on rack above and smoke hour and halfish. Crumble beef into pot, add beans and continue smoking for 2 hours or so.
I don’t believe beans should be in chili, but husband does and this is an argument that I’ve relented and will agree to black beans, but I’m not a fan of most beans and don’t want them.
I’m usually smoking around 250, and ground beef can be substituted with ground elk if we have it (this year was not a successful hunting year). I haven’t made red chili yet this year because it’s a cold weather meal and it’s 60 degrees in January in Colorado and hasn’t gotten cold! But thinking about this has made me hopeful we get some cold weather and snow soon! I’m curious about trying the ground pork as Todd suggested in my loaf for the over the top.
Green chili has been made this year since roasted chili season is in the fall, but that’s a whole different thing that no one is talking about in this topic but opinions are strong enough about what chili between chicken and beef should be didn’t know how throwing pork green chili into the thread would go over.
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would love guidance on pork green chili
TIA
Damn! That’s some nasty lookin’ Chili…in a good way.
Hey Mel, I will preface my green chili recipe with that it’s Colorado style, and not New Mexican style. I do eat it out of a bowl with a spoon and tortilla, but I will also use it to smoother burrito as a sauce, but I will thicken it a bit more for a sauce. Also, I wouldn’t call it traditional. I make a giant batch and freeze it, so I’m not really certain on the total amount of chicken broth i use or really any of the ingredients, but this is my estimate.
I start by making smoked chicken broth. I typically spatchcock about 4 chickens and smoke them and use both the smoked carcass and the raw backbone to make chicken broth. I also cube and smoke pork before putting it in my chili.
I use about 25-30 hatch chilis, I tend to buy a bushel of medium heat chiles and also throw in about 5-10 poblano chiles, (not traditional, but i like the flavor they add). If you have bought roasted chiles before, you know the process. If you haven’t, they roast them and then throw them in a bag usually. This allows them to steam in the bag to make it easier to peel the skin, remove the seeds and chop the chiles. I then dice up and divide into 1 or 2 lb increments to throw in the freezer.
In a pot I throw in 2 diced white onions, after cooking down for a bit, I add around 10 cloves minced garlic, and about 2 tbsp Mexican oregano, coriander, 1 tbsp cumin, dry mustard and salt and pepper. Also, add at this point 6-8 diced tomatoes, 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, 8ish diced jalapenos (amount depends on how spicy you want it to be) and diced chiles (poblano and hatch). I do hold back about a cup worth of chiles, a mix of the hatch and pablono, i add some of the chicken stock and using an immersion blender blend it up to create a puree. Once the remaining vegetables cook down a bit, I add the smoked pork the chile puree mix, and smoked chicken broth to fill the pot. Let it all simmer together for about an hour, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. I finish with a roux to thicken it all up. I then divide and freeze in 2 cup and 4 cup containers. I use the 2 cups for sauces and will usually thaw and thicken a bit further for a sauce to smoother burritos.
Again, this isn’t really written for anyone, so i don’t know my exact measurements, I can try to pay attention the next time i make it and track quantities a bit better. Hope this helps! If you have any suggestions on how to make it better, I’m all ears!
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Making chili tonight with the meat of one entire rack of ribs I smoked a couple weekends back (immediately pulled the meat off the bones, vacuum sealed in freezer - pork doesn’t mess around with being ‘leftover’ that well) and very much looking forward to it. Inspired by my buddy @K_John_Joseph who told me about this some time back, been thinking about it since
Oh no. A Skyline fan. Never quite understood that stuff. May be good, but certainly not chili. 
Just catching up on this new thread. Halfway through and @C.Adams is the first person to mention using actual chilis in his chili. Me too. Poblanos, anaheims, jalapenos and whatever else looks good and fresh on the shelf. Like you said, roast until black on all sides, steam in a paper bag for a few minutes and skin. Then chop.
Also use beer and throw in a shot of tequila, probably just so I can say I did it.
BTW, totally happy to see a chili thread. Way more variances among chili recipes than steaks or briskets.
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FYI I cook with green chilies (in a can with tomatoes) and top with fresh jalapeño slices .
I really admire the folks here roasting their fresh chiles and making their own personal dried chile blend from whole chiles and smoking their meats etc etc. Labor of love. Jars and cans of chiles and a commercial chile blend and ground meat are a deliberate time saving step for me.
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