- Chile -
Can an Old Wyoming Teacher make Chile? Yep!
-By-
Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.
This recipe is for real chili, no corn, potatoes, carrots or tofu, this is chili the way it was meant to be and the way it was meant to taste.
Best of all it takes less than an hour to make or is that cook?
One pound of lean Hamburger—90% or better (fancy chefs say ground beef but I still say hamburger)
½ Cup chopped Onion (you will need to chop it yourself, don’t use the dried already chopped stuff)
Brown the hamburger and onion together in a large skillet (this means cook them together, kinda stirs the flavors around) After the meat starts to sizzle add salt and pepper to taste—worried about the heart, leave out the salt!
Now get out the big pot and put it on the other side of the skillet on the stove.
In the big pot pour in one 16 oz can of V8 juice.
Add one can of Red beans—juice and all.
Add one can of Navy beans—juice and all.
Add one can of Kidney beans—and get this—juice and all. Chile makers that are not renowned, like the old chef here, often put too many kidney beans into chile and as my father-in-law used to say, “If I wanted Kidney Bean Soup, I would have ordered Kidney Bean Soup, but I wanted Chile.”
Add one can of Black beans, yep, juice and all.
Now turn on the burner under the big ol’ pot to medium.
Add one can of Stewed Tomatoes (don’t know why they usually come in cans of 14½ ounces, but they do) if you are not into chunks use tomato sauce.
ATTENTION—NEVER—EVER use tomato paste, this is supposed to be chile not tomato soup.
Mix the browned onion and meat into the big pot and start to add seasonings.
-And here is what you add!
One tablespoon of my own special Chile Powder—note how I never use tbsp or tsp—never could remember which is which. So use one Tablespoon—it’s bigger than the teaspoon. (The recipe for my own special chile powder is also on this blog—don’t you just love these informative blogs)? OK—OK—Ok, if you don’t have some of the Old Chefs chile powder get some at the store. WARNING—this will make the chile slightly less delicious.
One teaspoon of ground Paprika (yum and a nice red also)
One teaspoon of Cumin or for the light hearted or light stomached like myself ½ teaspoon of Cumin. This stuff has some real bite to it, so be careful. How good is cumin, the ancient Egyptians took it with them to the happy hunting grounds—it was that good.
Add another big pinch of Black Pepper or a couple a good shakes.
Add ¼ teaspoon of ground Sage—nice western smoky flavor.
Now turn the burner up and heat this stuff to an almost boil—keep stirring between sips of your favorite beverage.
This makes a very thick rich chile, if you would like it a little soupier, (not sure if soupier is a real word) anyway if you don’t want it so thick, add another 16 ounce can of V8—should be about right.
Serve with chopped green onions, shredded cheese and crackers---do not, under any circumstances, use them little round crackers. Get regular crackers, grind um up in your hands and put on chile. Or for a real treat put crackers in the bowl first and pour soup on top. WOW!
Note—do not let anyone pour any kind of hot sauce into this fine chile and do not try to stretch it with water—No water in this chile.
This will make 6-8 big bowls of fine Wyoming Chile—Enjoy!
Side note at the bottom—I once added some water and then added some white gravy mix to thicken—not so good.
