Southwestern Chili

What do you really want this Valentine's Day? A sexy, beautiful homemade treat or a hot and spicy, comforting bowl of chili? I choose comfy any day, in fact, I'm happily wearing sweatpants with fuzzy slippers and sporting a messy hair bun right now. Then, there's the delicious chili I made waiting for me to devour. I've tested this recipe twice so far, so I know it's a winner!

Southwestern Chili
Recipe adapted from Curtis Stone's What's For Dinner?
(Makes about 8 hearty bowls)

A handful of dried chili
8 garlic cloves, peeled
900 milliliters of reduced-sodium beef broth
Salt
2 pounds of lean ground beef
2 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 medium white onions, finely chopped
28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
2 19-ounce cans of red kidney beans, drained
Grated cheddar cheese
Chopped Scallions
Fries or tortilla chips

Boil hot water in a small saucepan.

I never actually measured how many dried chili I dump in this. It's roughly a handful or enough to fill a small bowl as seen in the photo above. I cut them in half and remove the seeds as well. There's still a very good spicy kick! If you love putting hot sauce and sriracha on your food, this is a good heat level. You can of course add more or less depending on your comfort zone. After the chili is prepped, put it in the saucepan with the hot water. Leave for 20 minutes so that chili softens. You can use a bowl or plate to place on top to keep the chili's submerged. During this time, peel your garlic cloves and chop your onions.

When the 20 minutes are up, place the beef broth, garlic cloves, chili, salt, and pepper in a blender, chop until everything is well blended. Set aside.

Place your pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Pour in the canola oil, once you see it shimmering, add the ground beef. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally to scrape the bottom and break up the meat. Add in the cumin, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes or until tender. Stir in the chili-garlic-beef-broth sauce, the tomatoes, and the vinegar. Bring to a gentle simmer, uncovered. Reduce the heat to low or medium-low depending on how strong your stove is. Cook for an hour and fifteen minutes, stir occasionally. After half an hour, add in the kidney beans. Chili will thicken, best served hot!

Don't forget to garnish!!! Grate some cheese and chop up some scallions.

Make chili cheese fries by topping the fries with cheese and pour on some chili to melt it. Garnish with scallions.

Gooey goodness. I love melted cheese.

Or, serve with tortilla chips for dipping. Go Tex-Mex by garnishing with cilantro and avocado instead! I don't know what the weather's like where you are, but Toronto is going through a deep freeze, it's currently -17°C and it's supposed to feel like -40°C tonight. So warm up with a hot bowl of chili. This only takes 3 hours - tops - to make!