Chili, how do they make it in your area?

from provincia de la Habana, by way of Margaritaville...

Pick all of the leftover meat off of the carcass of yesterday's roast ckicken.
Chop up a piece or two of bacon, and sauté it lightly in the bottom of your pot in olive oil (or preferably bacon grease).
Chop an onion, and stir it to the bacon.
When the onion's ready, add minced garlic; stir just until you can really smell it.
Stir in two cans of black beans, juice and all, and all of the leftover chicken.
Stir in a teaspoon of ground cumin, more or less to taste, some pepper and some salt, and a bay leaf.
Simmer slowly uncovered a long time until thickened, stirring frequently.
Serve topped with chopped onions, and a little bit of chopped cilantro.

My dad's chili's so mundane...but hot and filling and truthfully, he was catering to my mother's "delicate" palate. Roughly translated, if it's hotter than black pepper, she's not touching it.

...you think I'm kidding.

Anyway, after reading through the entire thread, were we the only family who ate their chili on a bed of mashed potatoes?

I eat mine on top of cornbread. Either cinnamon corn bread, baked like a cake, or jalapeno cheddar cornbread, cooked in an oven in a cast-iron skillet.

My boyfriend likes his served over macaroni and cheese with whole-berry cranberry sauce.

No, no -- I've heard of that. It would be like a red shepherd's pie, sort of. I guess rice is more typical -- but combining beans and some other kind of starch is pretty much a free-style event. My brother used to eat cold leftover bean-and-meat chili or even Boston baked beans in sandwiches on store brand white bread with about half a bottle of ketchup. I favor a coarse bulghur wheat as a rice alternative under chili, but it could be any kind of ballast.

I made up something once from stuff on hand that turned out kind of nice, very simple, similar to what Emmet did -- the after-Thanksgiving turkey had gotten a little too dry for sandwiches but there was too much left on the bird to just go and make soup. It was good because there was still some dark meat to mix in -- I guess the oiliness of the meat made it smoother:

Sautee 1 large chopped onion and 3 minced cloves of garlic in olive oil til soft. Stir in a good chili powder mix (I use the Penzey's medium hot mix, which has ancho chili pepper, red pepper, cumin, garlic and Mexican oregano -- add extra crushed red pepper seeds if you like) and let it warm and blend with the onion and garlic. I got about 2 pounds of big pieces off the carcass -- put that in heavy soup pot with sauteed stuff, 2 cans garbanzo beans (drained), and 8 big chopped plum tomatoes I had left over from salad fixings, a little water, and just let it simmer down and reduce a bit, uncovered, over a slow flame for an hour, since the meat was already cooked. I poked it a few times to crush up the tomatoes. Toward the end, as an afterthought, I threw in leftover sliced black olives, about half a cup. There was the inevitable sage flavor lurking about because of the seasonings the bird was roasted with, but I thought it worked in fine. It froze well, too. We just ate it with bread, but I can see using rice or even stirring in some cooked quartered potatoes.

Moving this back to the top!

True chili is served over not cooked with....

Chili is the meat sauce ( like spaghetti sauce ) that is served over what ever under- food you wish!

Potatoes are one of the many....

It's time to get all the ingredients together for chili, the days are getting cooler and there's nothing better than chili with cornbread! I have a recipe for chocolate chili, will post it later. I don't know if it's good or not, haven't made it yet.

Chocolate chili, that sounds interesting.

It does sound interesting. Is it like a mole (pronounced MO-lay), as they do in Mexico? Using chocolate as a spice flavoring without sugar, and usually also with chili pepper. Bet it's great! Looking forward to seeing the recipe.

Chili is exactly what we had for dinner last night, ( daytime temps hit 80, but we made it anyway)!

I used my recipe, posted here somewhere, it is the culmination of years of chili making and eating... it is what we like.

Since I was little, I have LOVED chili on Spaghetti. Whether it is canned or fresh made (I have book of recipes).

To add heat without changing the flavor I use Dave's Insanity Sauce. It is WAY hot but doesn't have its own flavor. Works like a [hot] Charm.

Bon Appetit!

Jay

Chili is good over polenta. Since my family likes it hot, I have to have something to tone it down a little so normal people can eat it.

Flora

Hey Jay,
Where did you get the "Dave's Insanity Sauce"?

I just checked to see the website -- apparently Mo Hotta Mo Betta is still in business, and they carry it, along with a lot of other excellent hot products. I got some jalapeno lollipops from them once.
http://www.mohotta.com/