Yeah , Super Saver in Millard used to do fresh roasted hatch peppers in the late summer before they closed that store. We used to stock up the freezer. I don’t know if the Store in council bluffs still does that. Anybody know?
I want to thank all for the fantastic suggestions!
So I decided I’m going to go for Hot, Smoky and a little Sweet in it.
Here’s my lineup:
Choice ground sirloin
Chorizo
Big white onion
Red bell pepper
Couple jalapeños
Rotel diced tomatoes with chilis
Hatch chilis
Bush’s Maple Bacon baked beans (sorry McLovin, ya gotta play to your audience)
Spices of my own mix heavy on the smoked paprika, chili and cumin
A little “Better than Bouillon” roasted beef base ( for richness)
(If I need it more smoky)A fantastic chipotle sauce I found in Branson
(If I want to kick up the sweet) blackberry jam
( if I want it thicker) Tony Chachere’s brown roux mix
Yeah when I make my own chili I use chuck roast chunks. The friends all prefer chunks, But there’s a dozen kids eating this stuff too, all with a vote, and like I said best I’ve finished is 4th using roast or stew beef.
I did take Dallas’ Moms advice and bought sirloin and course ground it myself. We’ll see if it counts. LOL
Only medal winner that didn’t use some form of ground beef or pulled pork was my son made some very creamy buffalo chicken chili and took a 3rd ( that I teased him wasn’t technically chili either)
My 13 year old grandson won it one year and he used a couple big bars of sweet dark chocolate. Don’t remember what the meat was though. It WAS damn good!
Ok my championship chili collaborators, we had our cookoff tonight.
Slightly smaller crowd because 3 of the families are off to Jamicia for a destination wedding that represents 3 pots and 8 eaters, so we had 12 pots entered.
A couple game time changes; out for the Rotel replaced by a fire roasted diced tomatoes I had. And the frozen hatch chilis I had were mild and I wanted more heat so I had a jar of hot mango salsa that went in.
Mixed, tasted and needed more sweet so added half the jar of blackberry jam.
Needed more smoky so added half the bottle of chipotle and more smoked paprika.
Simmered for 2 hours and tasted and it was exactly what I wanted; sweet on the front side, smoky heavy beef flavor and a rising heat that sneaks up on you to make you want another bite.
So…..how did I do? Well you could say I’m the Canadian gals Olympic hockey team of the cookoff. I took the silver just 1 silly point out of first….I guess it would be 2 points to overtake, huh?
I’m very satisfied with the result and it was a hit. Many compliments about the course ground sirloin. I had browned it the night before in the smoked paprika and it marinated and soaked in spice and the taste and texture were amazing. Thank you Dallas for that Input!
The winner was a “Whisky Peach” that used bourbon, frozen peaches sautéed in butter and Italian sausage for the meat. Im still trying to figure out her spices profile but it was heavy on cumin, chili and……maybe cardamom? Not sure.
Thank you all again for your input, I do so greatly appreciate your help.