Beef Burgundy Chili

This is absolutely my favorite chili recipe. It requires one pan, well stockpot, and plenty of time. After cooking storage in the refrigerator overnight actually improves it's flavor, much like Italian cuisine. The entire process will take the better part of an hour (much less with a pressure cooker), but once cooked, might be better kept in a crock-pot for slow simmering.

You can also make this in a pressure cooker if time is an issue.

As with all my recipes it's more about technique than ingredients, but please, get good ingredients.

I made four (4) quarts of this last week (by doubling the recipe below) and it disappeared in one day. I didn't have that many guests either.

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion
  
• 1/2 shallot, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded, halved, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, dried
• 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper, dried
• salt, to taste
• 1 cup Burgundy wine
• 1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  

1. In a medium stockpot brown the chuck with the thyme, sage, and garlic (minced). Once browned remove from pot.
2. In the same pot heat the olive oil and add the onion, garlic (chopped) shallot, red bell pepper, and jalapeno. Saute until the vegetables begin to brown. About seven (7) to ten (10) minutes.
   
3. Add the chili powder, cayenne pepper, chipotle, and salt. Cook stirring until all the spices begin to stick to the pan.
4. Add the burgundy to deglaze the pan and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. This should take five (5) to ten (10) minutes at the most.
   
5. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.
6. Stir in the browned chuck and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover, partially, and simmer for one hour.
   
   If using a pressure cooker step six (6) is where you begin using it. You can follow all of the directions above in the pressure cooker. Eighteen (18) minutes is all it takes once the cooker releases steam. Be sure to reduced your heat to simmer once the pot releases steam.
   

I don't like beans in my chili, but if you do add a can of precooked pinto beans at the beginning of step 6. About eight (8) ounces will do. You can also substitute black beans or navy beans.

If you are worried about the heat (spiciness) of this dish do not add the cayenne or jalapeno peppers. Of course this is highly variable. Some of us can take a lot of heat and others not. If you aren't sure or know for certain you can't take all that spice cut the chili powder in half and leave out all the other chili peppers (chipotle, cayenne, and jalapeno). However, these four chilis combined provide a lot of the flavor.

You can also cook this without the wine (substitute 1/2 cup of water if you do) or use a different wine. But burgundy, in my opinion adds the best flavors to the beef.

If you need to make more simply double all quantities.

You could combine all of this in a fry pan and only add the tomatoes and browned beef into a crockpot. If you do this cook for two hours on medium heat or one hour at high.

This chili can be frozen for up to two weeks. It can be refrigerated for up to three days.

I recently acquired a pressure cooker. I call it my "pressure pot." In fact I like it so much I wrote a a hub on pressure cooking.

I decided to try this recipe in the pressure pot and had a ready dish of chili in eighteen (18) minutes after step (5) five. It was as flavorful and well cooked as simmered for the hour in step (6) six.