This chili is also delicious made with ground chicken, turkey, or pork instead of--or combined with--the beef. You can also omit the meat entirely. I like using a combination of any of the following beans: navy, great Northern, cannellini, black, garbanzo, adzuki. Use canned beans with low or no sodium.
I love this recipe and have made it many times. I finally broke down and bought some specific spices including Guajillo chili powder. It is much more potent than regular chili powder and found that with the Chipotle Chilis and Adobo Sauce that I could have, at best, a half tablespoon of the Guajillo without making it too hot. Did this round with 2 lbs. of ground turkey (93% fat), Pomi chopped Italian tomatoes, Muir organic tomato paste, and organic cumin. I think the combination of the Pomi tomatoes and Muir tomato paste made it sweeter. That and we like to mix the beans up. This time it was garbanzo beans and light red kidney beans. My wife gave it a thumbs up. This is a repeat go-to winner in our house.
Well, I used this as a base for a (Pulled it out of the Pantry) Chili. And it turned out pretty good, thanks to you and this recipe. I had to ad-lib. I didn't have a fresh pepper, but I had a jar of roasted red peppers. I went to Walgreen's and they didn't have a dark beer so I used an MHL. I wasn't reading the recipe all the time, and looking back, I didn't use basil, I grabbed the oregano. I couldn't make myself use that big can of tomatoes so I used a can of Rotel. While cooking the onion, I added Spanish paprika, chili powder, cumin, tomato paste, and chipotle peppers, and some of the adobo sauce, and let that all cook together before adding the beef and liquids. I forgot the worchechshire so I am going to give that a blast now. I put it in the oven on low all night, and today I got out the boat motor and pureed it because I like it that way. Now all I need is a bag of Fritos for Frito Chili Pie. But the flavor profile I wanted is there. I am glad I wrote all this down, I have always been the Queen of Change or Adaptation!
I've been making this chili for a few years now. I've tried a few different recipes, but this one is delicious. My husband loves it!
