I need chili making advice 2692

Brown the meat and when it is nearly finished put in fresh crushed and diced garlic cloves, like, three per pound of beef. Do as Lyn said and dice some onions and cook them until they are brown but still plump, in another pan. The garlic and onions will give your chili a nice tang without using tomato sauce. Add your chili powder (and be sure to use enough of it! Don't think teaspoons, think 1/4 cup!) to the meat and garlic and muddle it all well together, make sure the heat is up high and pour in a goodly amount of water, enough that it is very watery. Bring it to a boil, then turn it down and get it to the point where it just bubbles very gently. A bubble or two. Leave it there for three hours, stirring very now and then, uncovered. It will thicken nicely.

Nikita! Remember those sauteed onions I mentioned? Don't put them in the chili until the last twenty minutes of cooking. Same with other vegetables you might want to use. (As Lyn said, it is YOUR chili, make it as you like it! I have added corn and diced jalapenos,and I always add beans--but not until the last 20 minutes. I am talking canned or fresh, not dried beans.)

For the flavor and tang of tomatoes I often dump some medium heat chunky salsa in, again--in the last twenty minutes of the simmer. This makes a really nice chili. You can also cook it way down, omit the beans and have taco meat, very nice rolled up in flour tortillas and served with shredded cheddar and lettuce, sour cream, refried beans, whatever you like, and it is good in hard shell (corn) tortillas too.

You can mess with masa (corn meal) but I like to keep all that starch and sugar out of mine. But Chili is personal! Be creative and have fun.