Skip to main content

Chili Bowls

The Super Bowl was tonight. I normally don't like football. Tonight was no exception. I still don't like football. I do, however, like reasons to make ridiculously spicy food and subject those around me to it.

Two weeks ago, in preparation for tonight, I made my first bowl of chili. It was glorious. I cried.

I literally cried. It was that spicy.

My lovely weapons.

But I felt I could up the ante a bit. This chili wasn't just for me anymore. Tonight started with the South Main Manna Chili Bowl, which is a giant party for the Manna ministry (homeless ministry) community in the Fellowship Hall to eat chili and watch the game. It turned out to be a fairly fortuitous event as well since it is cold and rainy here and was a good time to be off the streets. One thing I've learned over the past 2 years of working with the Manna guys is that homeless men like spicy things. I've yet to see something that can't have peppers or hot sauce applied to it. 

The chili bowl was going to be followed by Lauren and Mikey's Super Bowl party. I owe the death nectar hot sauce (pictured above) to this particular group of friends, so it only seemed fair to subject them to it. Lauren M. made an audible yelp when she took the first bite. I had succeeded. 

By her request, here's the recipe:

Claire's Steel Magnolia Chili: It'll make you cry and give you hot flashes

- 2 lbs. extra lean ground turkey meat
- 1 pack hormel hot/spicy chili seasoning
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 large, yellow onion (chopped)
- 3 jalapeño peppers (seeds removed, chopped)
- 3 serrano peppers (seed removed, chopped)
- 2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes (I went with fire-roasted for this recipe)
- 1 14 oz. can "hot" chili beans
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 pack frozen, cut okra
- 1 tablespoon harissa
- 1 tablespoon Death Nectar, ghost pepper hot sauce

1. Cook onions and peppers together until tender (I put a small amount of  olive oil in the pan to keep it from burning)
2. Add turkey meat, cook until no longer pink.
3. Add dry seasoning, tomatoes, and beans. You can also add another 14 oz. of water if you want a more liquid chili. I like the less soupy version.
4. Bring to a simmer.
5. Add harissa and death nectar. BE CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH YOU EYES OR NOSE OR ANY OPEN WOUND. YOU WILL REGRET THIS IMMEDIATELY.
6. Stir in the frozen okra.
7. Bring to simmer and let simmer for 30 minutes.

I think adding chipotles would make a nice, more rounded flavor. I would also suggest some cayenne pepper and more beans to this recipe. I found that the spice mellows over the night. Today I almost added in some jalapeño slices but decided not to because I ran out of time. Siracha would also be a possible addition, but I like the flavor profile of harissa better. Obviously you can use other types of meat, the lean turkey is good because you don't have to drain the fat off after you cook it.

*Note* death nectar is a slow and painful burn that has lasted up to 45 minutes for me. I"m deadly serious about not getting it in your nose or eyes. Avoid immediately showering after eating the chili. The hot water will set you lips on fire.

Enjoy!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Syllabus for the Next 18 Months

I decided at some point in the last week that I wanted to make a checklist of 30 things to do before I turned 30. Creating a list of 30 things is harder than I imagined it would be. But, to quote Julie Andrews (which I suppose is actually quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein), "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." There's nothing magical about turning thirty. I imagine that on July 2, 2015, when I wake up, my eyes will still be blue, my fingers will still number ten, my instant desire will be to go back to sleep. That said, it is one of those watershed points in life. The idea of approaching thirty is both reassuring and daunting. At least I'm theoretically past the point of having a quarter-life crisis. What I want to do is be able to look back at my 20s and tell my future kids about all the adventures their parents had before they were thirty. Creating this list isn't going to create those adventures. We've already had s...

Claire tries cooking! Pineapple Chicken Quesadilla and Figgy Balsamic

We are the typical American family when it comes to food habits. In that, we eat a rotation of approximately the same 5 meals: - Chicken Tacos - BBQ Chicken - Sauteed Salmon - Spaghetti - "Meatloaf" Pies Every once in a blue moon, I'll add something "fun" to the mix: - Stir Fry - Pretzel Chicken - More different fish - Roast Chicken Fun meals ceased to exist once baby boy showed up, but now that he's able to sit in a high chair AND has a bit of a schedule during the day, cooking is incrementally becoming an easier task. Last night I found a slow cooker magazine (yay Better Homes and Gardens!) and realized that I'm bored with the same 5-6 meals. Trying to find new permutations of said meals is also a task I don't completely enjoy. Only Tuesdays should signal a specific food (e.g. Taco Tuesdays). So here goes a novel experiment - I'm going to try and cook something "new" once a week. Full disclosure - I'm a big fan of...

Work-Life Balance, the Protestant Work Ethic, and Cross-Cultural Expressions of Worth

The United States and the United Kingdom are not the same place. Over the past 19 months, the differences have become apparent in some hilarious ways. For example, football means something dramatically different in Aberdeen than in Houston (and I use dramatically because both sports incite equal amounts of drama). I am fortunate in that I share a graduate student office with non-Americans. My department is overwhelmingly American and at times it can feel as though we aren't living in a foreign country, and to a larger extent a foreign culture. The realization of how vast these differences are appeared in an unusual manner this afternoon- the rights of postgraduate students to take personal time, or annual leave as its known here. The discussion emerged in response to a lovely blog by a postgraduate student elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At her university, the school requires their students to take annual leave, up to six weeks a year in that case. It seems that she isn'...