I entered a chili competition about a month ago.
2 years ago, I urged my brother to join the same one.
(he makes great chili.)
He makes vegetarian chili, however, and people weren’t that into it.
I just looked it up, though, and Wikipedia(god, i mean), says this:
“A chili cook-off is a social event, similar to a barbecue, in which competitors prepare their own particular recipe for chili con carne and submit it for taste testing.”
So. Maybe they were right.
This year, he wasn’t interested, but I wanted to try!
Here’s what I did to make my chili, y’all.
I finely chopped sweet onions and bell peppers, added a little salt and pepper, and sauteed them in olive oil.
I cooked them until they were softened, and added some garlic.
I cooked the mixture a bit more until the garlic was softened, too.
In the meantime, I had poured my canned tomatoes in a pot and mashed them with a whisk.
I added my chicken stock, and my pepper and onion mixture, and brought it to a boil.
I then sauteed two finely chopped jalapenos, and a habanero.
Just enough to sweat out a little bit of the oils.
I added only half of the mixture to chili..
It seemed shockingly hot.
I added beer, honey, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, salsa, and cocoa powder.
Everyone has their secret ingredients, and here are mine.
I let that simmer, while I seared my beef chunks.
I got Black Angus stew beef.
It looked leaner than the other stew beef at the store.
I just used olive oil, salt, and pepper, but cooked it in the pan that I cooked my hot peppers.
(as an aside.. i haven’t used Black Angus since it became popular in the 90s. me and my dad thought it was the bees knees.)
I added the beef to my pot while it was medium rare.
Then added the beans and hominy.
I let my pot simmer for an hour and a half to two hours.
Just enough to make the beef tender, but keep it’s shape.
I put the whole pot, covered, in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, I set it to simmer for another two hours..
Until the beef was shredding apart, and it had reduced to the thickness I was looking for.
(THICK)
I added cayenne, a bit more salt and pepper, and the apple cider vinegar.
We lugged the chili to The Historic White House for judging.
There were 14 contestants, including me.
My chili is the 5th one out.. Silver pot. So unassuming.
I was nervous. Excited, and nervous.
We waited for about an hour and a half before the judging started..
Then waited in line to get our samples.
You had to line up your chilis, and remember which one was which..
(it wasn’t as hard as everyone was making it out to be)
Again.. Mine is the 5th one out.. Kind of hanging off the top corner.
I have to say that there was a great deal of *BAD* chili.
To me, the worst, was D. (I was E)
It tasted like.. Garbage-y vinegar.
The best?
This cream cheesy chicken chili..
The second one in on the bottom.
I went back, as did the rest of my table, to get seconds.
SO. GOOD.
It took FOREVER for them to count the votes.
They went through, and put each chili in a place.
The one I hated only got second to last.
It was sick nasty. An abomination.
They ridiculed the loser, and gave her money to “learn how to make better chili.”
Y’all. I WON SECOND PLACE TO THAT DELICIOUS CREAM CHEESE AND CHICKEN.
After the winner was announced, a man from the other side of the bar yelled, “BUT THAT WASN’T CHILI, THAT WAS DIP!”
Made me happy in my internals.
I feel like I won first place for real chili.
My spoils!
A gift card for $30 for the bar..
(they have pizza?)
I might have gotten home and done a search for cooking contests.
The sweet taste of victory, peeps.
It’s so delicious.
UPDATE:
THE CHILI I LOST TO WAS SEASONED WITH MCCORMICK’S SEASONING MIXES. WHITE CHILI AND REGULAR.
Dude. Fuck that.
I WIN.
I DID NOT PLACE SECOND.
