Award Winning Smoked Pork Chili

Award Winning Smoked Pork Chili

This Chili recipe is so easy & delicious you’ll never make another chili recipe again. The secret is not getting too crazy with this one. When I think of Chili, I go back to my childhood eating grilled hot dogs and chili loaded with cheese & sour cream on those brisk football sundays. I wanted to create a recipe that revamped the classic Chili I remember eating growing up. Award-Winning Chili recipe coming at ya! 

Smoked Pork: I’m going to save my lecture on the art of smoked barbeque for a rainy day, but if you plan on taking on this portion of the recipe from scratch, here are a few pointers: (don’t be afraid to outsource the smoked pork unless you’re extra like me.) 

• Low & Slow is the way to go

• For a pork butt, I try to maintain my smoker between 200°f-225°f

• Let your pork butt rest OUT of the fridge for a few hours before you plan on smoking. You don’t want to put a cold piece of meat on your smoker. (it’ll help with a more even cook)

• Don’t go crazy with your dry rub! Salt, pepper, and paprika is the way to go! 

• Lather your meat in a mixture of yellow mustard and hot sauce before applying your dry rub. The wet rub acts as a tenderizer and gives your spice blend something to stick to

• When your temperature probe penetrates the meat and feels like a bag of butter, you’ve officially smoked a butt!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 medium onion, diced

• 2 lbs smoked pork butt

• 1 Tbsp chili powder

• 4 Tbsp Cumin

• 3 Tbsp Brown Sugar

• 2 Tbsp garlic powder

• 3 tsp salt

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 3 cups beef broth

• ½ can tomato paste

• 1 can diced tomatoes

• 2 can kidney beans

• 1 can tomato sauce

• 3 bulbs garlic, minced

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat your oil. 

2. When oil begins to sizzle, add your onions and stir until translucent.

3. Add chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, garlic, and tomato paste. Stir to combine. 

4. Once fragrant, add your beef broth, diced tomato, beans,  and tomato sauce. 

5. Bring everything to a simmer

6. Once simmering, add your shredded smoked pork and stir to combine. 

7. Leave on low heat for several hours or until desired flavor and consistency has been reached. 

Pro Tip: Start this recipe 1-3 days before you plan on actually eating it. The longer you let the Chili simmer, the more the flavors will meld and develop. 

You can adjust the “intensity” of the chili by adding some water or simmering until the chili has reduced to desired flavor.

How to be the Best Home Cook on the Block

Hear that?

Thats the fluttered chattering of neighbors and passerby’s who caught wind of those restaurant quality lamb chops you whipped up the night before. A seemingly impossible feat it is to manifest such a delicate meat to medium rare perfection from a measly old home kitchen, yet you pulled it off. Sorry Karen, but i’m about to ruin your secret. That’s because, it’s actually very easy and affordable to be a great at-home chef these days. Commercial grade kitchen tools are advancing and becoming more readily available for the aspiring at-home chef. I want to tell you about one of my favorite products on the market. Don’t even worry about making room next to the slow cooker. You won’t notice a dent in your pocket either. That’s because the Sous Vide, also known as an immersion circulator, is here and it’s one of the cheapest and easiest kitchen tools that will take you from a “B- Chef” to an “A+ Chef instantly”…..i’m so serious….

Sous Vide, French for “Under Vacuum”, is a method of cooking food at a very precise temperature by, you guessed it, vacuum sealing the food and letting it cook in a water bath. Don’t let the sound of that intimidate you, though. Sous Vide is a very simple method that allows you to cook food, usually in its own fats/juices, at a very controlled temperature, yielding perfect results every time! …and you don’t need a professional grade vacuum sealer either…

The Sous Vide I use at home is the Anova Nano Precision Cooker . It’s only $129 and can be paired from bluetooth to operate with your phone, or manually. Just fill a soup pot up with water, stick your sous vide in, let the water preheat, and you’re off! Anova also offers a mobile app with tons of great recipes to try. Use it as a launching pad, and the opportunities are truly endless!

Go pick up yours now! Let me know about all of your creations or questions you have in the comments or at darlasbagels@gmail.com.

PRO TIP: If cooking a protein, once you finish the sous vide method, pull out your cast iron and crank up the heat. Lightly oil the pan. Wipe the flattest surface of your protein dry to avoid the oil from splashing. Place the protein in the pan with the most even/flat surface down on the pan. Allow the protein the get a nice caramelized skin (this is called the maillard reaction!). Remove from the heat and let rest before serving.

Keep spreading love, good people!

Best,

Chef Jake

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