Chili Bar Chili!

Here is a wonderful recipe for a heartwarming chili for those cold, cold nights! It is named after an area nearby that is called Chili Bar. The area became a mining camp for some Chilean miners who were run out of Garden Valley. Here is a photo of the area this last fall:

Chili Bar in the Sierra Foothills

For more history on Chili Bar click here! Are you ready for some chili? Let’s head on into the kitchen!

Ingredients
3# boneless chuck roast, cut into small chunks
1/4# applewood smoked bacon, cut into small pieces
3 pasilla peppers, seeded and cut into 1″ pieces
1/3 cup of chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
3 TBS flour
1 TBS paprika
1 tsp each of salt and black pepper
29 oz. low sodium beef broth
28 oz. peeled tomatoes
3 TBS ground cumin
Grated cheddar cheese

I made this chili in my cast iron dutch oven, which is a perfect pot for cooking chili! When cooking in cast iron you do not need to set the heat very high as the iron does get really hot. I used medium heat (gas) for browning and bringing to a boil, and low for the simmer needed in this recipe. Ready to start?

The first thing that I do when preparing something to cook is to get all the work done on the ingredients. Take the flour and place it in a zipper bag, and add the paprika, salt and pepper and shake to combine. Add the beef to the bag and shake it up to coat. Once this is done, I get to cooking the bacon. You want to cook the bacon until it gets crispy, then set it aside in a bowl.

Browned bacon

Now pour off the bacon grease into a measuring cup, and then take two TBS and add it back to the dutch oven. Grab 1/3 of the beef and add it to the dutch oven to brown.

Start browning the beef

As the beef gets done with browning, move it off to the bowl with the bacon. Be sure to use the reserved bacon grease as needed when browning the beef! Repeat with the next third of the meat. On the last round of browning the beef, add the onion and garlic with it.

Last batch – include the onion and garlic

Looks lovely and smells great! When the last batch of beef is browned, add back the meat from the bowl.

Combine all the meat

Then slowly add in the beef broth scraping up the lovely browned bits that have stuck to the bottom of the dutch oven. Then add in the tomatoes, pasilla peppers and the chipotle chiles. Stir in the cumin to combine.

Add the beef broth and tomatoes

Isn’t this just lovely?

Joe – is your stomach growling?

Bring this up to a boil, then cover and turn the heat down to low so that it simmers. Set the timer for an hour and a half. Stir this periodically savoring the aromas when you lift the lid!

Half way through cooking

When the buzzer goes off, remove the lid and increase the heat a slight bit so that you keep the pot at a gentle simmer. This will cause the chili to thicken up a bit. Cook for another 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Are you ready for some chili? Doesn’t this look good?

Chili is served!

Don’t forget to top this with some really good cheddar! I love the medium Tillamook!

Top with cheddar

I hope that you try this recipe as it is truly amazing! If you do, please let me know! Now go have a great Saturday! I am heading back into the kitchen as we are having corned beef cooked in beer for dinner tonight! You can check out this recipe by clicking here! Thanks for stopping by!

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