Chili is a serious subject across this continent and everyone has their own way of making it, as Lifter kindly mentioned in his delicious post on the subject. But, as requested by dear Alix, here is the recipe for “authentic” Texas Chili, given to me by Texas Gov. Ann Richards, avid hunter, great cook, and downright warm, wonderful gal.
As I mentioned under Lifter’s recipe, with tongue in cheek, Texans claim that chili is a Texas creation, a Texas invention, and a Texas tradition! It was created as a cheap food for cowboys, one that could easily be made while riding the hard trails and that would also travel well. In other words, it was quick and easy to make, but could be made to serve lots of people over a long period of time. Following the herds across country, a group of cowboys could start a pot of chili and continually add meat scraps and fat to the pot over the weeks as they traveled…and it only got better as the trail went on.
Think about this for a minute from an historical standpoint. Chili was cowboy food…food made by and for cowboys traveling across the ranges away from civilization back in the 1800s. There were no canned tomatoes, and certainly no fresh tomatoes on the trail. There were no pasta makers, and there certainly weren't any beans very often in real life. (Beans were dried (of course) and required you to soak them in water for a day or more and then boil them for hours more just to make them edible...a whole lots of inconvenient work.) Chili is fast, easy food, and is made up of nothing but ingredients you can travel with safely without refrigeration, or scrounge around and find while you're on the trail. That limited the ingredients to only a few things: meat, chili powder, and possibly a few wild leaks, onions, or a little garlic, and maybe a few wild vegetables on top of that, but darned little.
I encourage you to try this recipe at least once, so you will understand how far this dish has come to its present variations a century and a half later.
Here's how to make real Texas Cowboy Chili. Start with the following ingredients:
2 pounds of coarsely ground beef (not lean!)
2 ounces of animal fat (bacon grease or beef suet--the pork fat is a little better)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large chopped onion
3-5 tablespoons chili powder (McCormick's is authentic enough, although you can mix your own with cumin, ground red pepper, oregano, cumin, black pepper and salt if you're really, really serious…)
And that’s it -- the entire ingredient list. Nothing more.
First, render your pork or beef fat by frying it over low heat until it melts. An iron skillet is best if you want to be really authentic. Remove the rinds from the fat, if any, then add the coarse ground beef. Brown the beef lightly over medium heat, until it just begins to turn brown. Then add the minced garlic and chopped onions.
Do not drain ANY of the fat off. (I know, I know...!) Continue to cook.
Once the onions begin to become translucent, slowly start sprinkling in the chili powder, stirring slowly and gently as you add it. Once it's blended, reduce the heat and let the chili simmer at a very low, mildly bubbling heat for at least two hours. Stir the chili gently every half hour or so.
Add salt to taste. You shouldn't need much though!
You will notice that the consistency of this chili changes rather dramatically over time, becoming thicker the longer it cooks. You can add a little water if it gets too thick, but keep in mind that it's supposed to be thick – I’ve met more than a few “serious” Texas Chili folk who will tell you that a spoon should stand up if you stick it into a bowl of real chili!
That's it! Two hours, and the chili is ready to eat. However, the longer it cooks, the better it will be! Cook it four hours, six hours, eight hours…start it in the morning and eat it for dinner, whatever. Refrigerate the chili and reheat it the next day, and it will taste even better still!
Sound boring? You will be absolutely astounded with how good it is. Feel free to add a fresh, sliced jalapeno or two for a nice kick. A SINGLE fresh tomato chopped into the mix isn't too far from the original to be sacrilegious to a native Texan. A single chopped green pepper might not hurt either. However, I encourage you to try the plain, original recipe at least once, to understand what it was and perhaps, even, how far the dish has evolved.
Hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll try the real thing at least once in your life!
** This recipe is attributed to Jim Perry, an exceptional cowboy, cook and fiddler who worked on the XIT Ranch, located primarily in the Texas Panhandle. Jim, by the way, was one of many African-American cowboys that our history has only recently begun to celebrate.
The XIT Ranch (XIT=Ten in Texas) included land in ten counties and was one of the largest ranches in the history of our nation. Its lands were sold to a Chicago company in exchange for constructing our state capitol building, which was completed in 1888.
The exact date of this recipe is unknown, but is estimated to have been created somewhere around 1840.
As I mentioned under Lifter’s recipe, with tongue in cheek, Texans claim that chili is a Texas creation, a Texas invention, and a Texas tradition! It was created as a cheap food for cowboys, one that could easily be made while riding the hard trails and that would also travel well. In other words, it was quick and easy to make, but could be made to serve lots of people over a long period of time. Following the herds across country, a group of cowboys could start a pot of chili and continually add meat scraps and fat to the pot over the weeks as they traveled…and it only got better as the trail went on.
Think about this for a minute from an historical standpoint. Chili was cowboy food…food made by and for cowboys traveling across the ranges away from civilization back in the 1800s. There were no canned tomatoes, and certainly no fresh tomatoes on the trail. There were no pasta makers, and there certainly weren't any beans very often in real life. (Beans were dried (of course) and required you to soak them in water for a day or more and then boil them for hours more just to make them edible...a whole lots of inconvenient work.) Chili is fast, easy food, and is made up of nothing but ingredients you can travel with safely without refrigeration, or scrounge around and find while you're on the trail. That limited the ingredients to only a few things: meat, chili powder, and possibly a few wild leaks, onions, or a little garlic, and maybe a few wild vegetables on top of that, but darned little.
I encourage you to try this recipe at least once, so you will understand how far this dish has come to its present variations a century and a half later.
Here's how to make real Texas Cowboy Chili. Start with the following ingredients:
2 pounds of coarsely ground beef (not lean!)
2 ounces of animal fat (bacon grease or beef suet--the pork fat is a little better)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large chopped onion
3-5 tablespoons chili powder (McCormick's is authentic enough, although you can mix your own with cumin, ground red pepper, oregano, cumin, black pepper and salt if you're really, really serious…)
And that’s it -- the entire ingredient list. Nothing more.
First, render your pork or beef fat by frying it over low heat until it melts. An iron skillet is best if you want to be really authentic. Remove the rinds from the fat, if any, then add the coarse ground beef. Brown the beef lightly over medium heat, until it just begins to turn brown. Then add the minced garlic and chopped onions.
Do not drain ANY of the fat off. (I know, I know...!) Continue to cook.
Once the onions begin to become translucent, slowly start sprinkling in the chili powder, stirring slowly and gently as you add it. Once it's blended, reduce the heat and let the chili simmer at a very low, mildly bubbling heat for at least two hours. Stir the chili gently every half hour or so.
Add salt to taste. You shouldn't need much though!
You will notice that the consistency of this chili changes rather dramatically over time, becoming thicker the longer it cooks. You can add a little water if it gets too thick, but keep in mind that it's supposed to be thick – I’ve met more than a few “serious” Texas Chili folk who will tell you that a spoon should stand up if you stick it into a bowl of real chili!
That's it! Two hours, and the chili is ready to eat. However, the longer it cooks, the better it will be! Cook it four hours, six hours, eight hours…start it in the morning and eat it for dinner, whatever. Refrigerate the chili and reheat it the next day, and it will taste even better still!
Sound boring? You will be absolutely astounded with how good it is. Feel free to add a fresh, sliced jalapeno or two for a nice kick. A SINGLE fresh tomato chopped into the mix isn't too far from the original to be sacrilegious to a native Texan. A single chopped green pepper might not hurt either. However, I encourage you to try the plain, original recipe at least once, to understand what it was and perhaps, even, how far the dish has evolved.
Hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll try the real thing at least once in your life!
** This recipe is attributed to Jim Perry, an exceptional cowboy, cook and fiddler who worked on the XIT Ranch, located primarily in the Texas Panhandle. Jim, by the way, was one of many African-American cowboys that our history has only recently begun to celebrate.
The XIT Ranch (XIT=Ten in Texas) included land in ten counties and was one of the largest ranches in the history of our nation. Its lands were sold to a Chicago company in exchange for constructing our state capitol building, which was completed in 1888.
The exact date of this recipe is unknown, but is estimated to have been created somewhere around 1840.
