Since I called an audible on throwing a Super Bowl party I needed to get ingredients that would power up the flavor and maximize my time that I had to cook the chili. It was 430pm and I was at the butcher. Game time was 6pm and I planned on serving the chili at half time.
Pork was the clear choice because it is such a flavorful meat. I decided to go with 4 selections of meat for my chili:
6 pieces pork stew meat
1lb of Bork (part chopped beef and part chopped pork)
1 hunk of uncut butcher block smoked bacon
1 smoked pig foot. Mmmmm smoked pig foot heh
So let us take some time to about why I chose the meat I chose.
Well for one thing I wanted to have more then one type of meat texture so I decided to get the stew meat and the chopped meat. The stew meat would be pulled and stringy which is wonderful. The chopped bork would be the quintissential meat texture you expect in a chili.
The bacon I am going to be adding at the end so let's move to the really fun ingredient... SMOKED PIG FOOT... Now the reason I picked up this ingredient was to really amp up the porkiness and smokiness of the chili. But let's be honest.... it is a friggin smoked pig foot. How could I possibly resist?!????
I mean look at that thing. It is gorgeous and wacky all at the same time. I needed to experience the power of the smoked pig foot. I could need resist it's draw. Mmmmm Smoked Pig Foot.
So here was the other ingredients I got for the chili.
1 hunk of beautiful aged cheddar cheese
2 tablespoon Thai chili powder
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper corn
1 tablespoon Yellow mustard powder
1 teaspoon All spice
1 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flake
1 tablespoon of honey
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
1 large yellow onion
1 large shallot
1 can of black beans
2 cans of butter beans
4 large cloves of garlic
some warm water
Kosher salt
Black pepper
pickled jalapeños
sour cream
olive oil
Given I was rushed for time I decided to use two pots. One pot so I can stew the meat and create a base that is porky porky porky. One pot to make a sweet and spicy tomato base. Once I was satisfied with the flavor bases I would combine the two pots and cook it down to remove the moisture.
Porky Pot:
First I seasoned all the meat with salt and black pepper. I heated up the pot and put some olive oil on the bottom. I dropped in the stew meat and started to sear it to create a nice browning on it. Once it was nice and brown I dropped in the bork and browned that up. I added in the mustard, nutmeg, all spice, sichuan pepper corns, and thai chili powder. I coated all the meat in the spices and then dropped in the pork foot. Mmmm pork foot. I covered the whole thing with water so the pork was submerged in water but just enough to submerge it. I started it simmering and let the meat go go go. About 20 mins in I added in the can of black beans and about 45 mins in I removed the pork foot so the smoke flavor did over power the pork pot.
Now I realize the sichuan peppercorn and thai chili powder are hard ingredients to find. I suggest hitting up your local asian super markets or hitting up your local china town. Either way they are worth the effort! Super delicious and amazing flavor. The sichuan peppercorn are amazing! They make your mouth numb and taste like pink peppercorns kinda. Yum Yum! luckily I had someone pick me up these ingredients while in Thailand and um er um sneak em into the country. hehe.
Sichuan Peppercorn
Thai Chili Powder
Sweet and Spicy Tomato Pot:
I cut up one yellow onion and one shallot. I added olive oil to the pot and sweat the onion and shallot in the hot oil after seasoning it with salt and black pepper. I added in the garlic and brought all the ingredients to a nice caramelized brown color. I added in the two large cans of crushed tomatoes, the honey, and red pepper flakes. I added in some seasoning of salt and black pepper and cooked all the flavors together. I added in the butter beans and let it cook down for 45 mins.
Once the two pots were ready I combined the two pots. I let this mixture simmer for the next hour covered. I then removed the cover and let it simmer uncovered to let the moisture come out. I shredded some cheddar cheese about 1 cup and folded it into the chili.
Once the chili was "ready" I started to work on two addon ingredients to plus it up flavor wise and texturally. I cubed the butcher block bacon and cooked it up nice and crispy. I made sure not to over cook it as I wanted the center to be a little gelatinous but cooked. I wanted the bacon fat to burst into your mouth when you bit into it. Mmmm Bacon. I also cubed up some cheddar cheese.
When I served the chili I folded in the about 10 cheddar cubes and 4 bacon cubes per bowl. I garnished it with 6 more bacon cubes, some chopped pickled jalapeños and some sour cream.
What I got was simply delicious! Smokey, porky, sweet, beany, super delicious chili. This chili made we want to squeal. This recipe has some unique ingredients but this is by far the best chili I have ever made or eaten. Yum yum yum!
Here is the final product:
Here is the final product:
