There’s a minor feud in Texas about what is proper chili — with or without beans. The above recipe is from Colleen Wallace who is in the “no bean” camp. I whipped up a batch (as close as I could get) for a Halloween dinner party and it was well received by everyone there; adults, teenagers, children alike.

I ladled up my bowl of “meat soup” and it seemed much thinner than what I had as “chili” as a child. The first thing I did was grabbed a fistful of saltine crackers and crushed them into the chili to thicken it up. As I was enjoying my bowl, I noticed that everyone else did exactly the same thing.

The missing ingredient? Beans.

I took the wining formula used in the above recipe and made some minor changes to thicken it up and use available spices. I chose black beans specifically for their thickening qualities and to be a little different from the norm (which is to use kidney beans).

I went to Spice Barn, http://spicebarn.com/ for the hard-to-find spices, such as ground jalapeno pepper. While there, I decided to use their premium chili powder as well as granulated onion and garlic.

For the other spices, I picked them up at the local grocery store. Williams Chili Powder is a packet powder found at Kroger, for example.

Here’s the recipe, enjoy:

Early prep:
Beans – 1 pound black beans
clean beans (pick out small pebbles, split/withered beans)
cover beans with cold water,
- let sit for 5 minutes,
- agitate,
- pick out anything that floats,
- drain
repeat and drain
cover beans with cold water, soak beans for at least 2 hours

Cooking:
Bring beans to boil (use fresh water),
- no salt or spices,
- let simmer while preparing meat

Meat – 2-1/2 pounds of stew meat
- cut into smaller cubes, remove fat and gristle

Brown meat in 1/2 teaspoon Crisco with Lowry’s or Spice Barn seasoned salt.
note: this works well in a 10″ iron skillet

Add to meat:
1 14oz can – Swanson Beef Broth (Chicken broth works fine)
1 8oz can – tomato sauce
water to cover meat plus 1 inch (add water as needed)

Low boil meat sauce for 30min

Combine beans and meat and add:
1 tbsp – Williams Chili Powder
1 tbsp – Granulated Onion
1 tsp – Granulated Garlic
1/2 tsp – Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp – Ground Jalapeno Pepper
1 tsp – Beef Bouillon Granules (one cube)
1 tsp – Chicken Bouillon Granules (one cube)
1/2 tsp – Salt

Slow bubble for one hour

Add:
4 tsp – Cumin
1 tsp – Granulated Garlic
1/4 tsp – Course-ground Black Pepper
1 package – Sazon Goya
6 tbsp – Spice Barn Premium Chili Powder
1/4 tsp – Brown Sugar

Slow bubble for 45 minutes

Can be served immediately.

Also can let sit overnight in refrigerator to allow chili to thicken
and let flavors blend — slightly different flavor, also very good.

The end-result is a spicy enough to bring a bead of sweat to my brow. I’m not into spicy-hot food, so this would qualify as mid-range heat: a bit hot for the wimps, a bit mild for the macho types.