Ep004 - Chili Controversies
In this episode of the Okayest Cook Podcast, host Chris Whonsetler and his co-hosts Colton Heiner, Andrew Heiser, and Cory Cole dive into a lively discussion about all things chili. They explore the controversy surrounding chili ingredients, from adding sweet potatoes and cinnamon to using different types of beans and peppers. The co-hosts share their personal chili recipes, debate the inclusion of pasta, and touch on innovative approaches like using orange juice and yogurt. The episode also touches on the benefits of sourcing local ingredients, the cultural influences on chili, and why chili is the perfect cold-weather dish.
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Chris: Welcome back to the Okayest Cook Podcast. I am your host, Chris Whonsetler, and I am joined by my three co-hosts who are ranked by, who I think knows how to properly set a dinner table. We have Colton Heiner, Andrew Heiser, and Cory Cole.
Colton: That's fair. I was a catering manager for three years,
Chris: so are you serious?
I had no idea. So I guess we know how that ranking is gonna go top to bottom now. So today's episode we are going to be discussing a surprisingly controversial stew chili. It is getting towards the end of chili season here in central Indiana. Let me back up. It's always chilly season. Yeah.
But. It does taste better when it's frigid outside and we are like rocking the 30 degrees right now.
Andy: Balmy today.
Chris: Yeah, we just had a really warm week after a really frigid week. So chili is just hitting the spot right now. We are going to chat about that after we discuss our week in food. So tell me guys, what what did you guys discover or taste this week that really stood out to you?
Andy: I am gonna go first on this one, I think because we've been eating it tonight. I actually been, we're talking about chili today, but I brought Stew a venison stew. It was good. It's very good. It's one of those that like I was. A little nervous about making, to be honest. 'cause I've never really made a stew.
That, and I was really nervous about the quantity of some of the seasonings that were involved. And Cole and I were just talking prior to the hitting record here about stews can sometimes be blah and bland and, and this one was not shy on the black pepper. And so it has got a little bit of a a nice little pop to it.
So that's, again, those was solid this week was a try that went well. So I think it's not
Corey: dry either.
Andy: Yeah.
Corey: And I think it's a good definition of pop and not heat.
Chris: Yes.
Andy: It's not. Hot pepper. It's got a, it's got pop.
Chris: Yeah. It was a nice savory, like it was balanced really well.
Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't, yeah. Heavy handed one way or the other. But yeah, I was a big fan. Yeah, I would. I would like to make that too. It's good stuff. Oh,
Corey: for sure.
Chris: Yes. Corey, what
Corey: do you got for us man? I did another round of, a bacon wrapped backstrap. Ooh. And I do. So my go. Okay. One of my go-tos because I don't get the opportunity to use my grill as much as I like.
I love liquid smoke. I use it so much.
Chris: What
Andy: is liquid smoke?
Chris: I think it's legitimately liquid smoke.
Corey: It's yummy. Goodness. Do. It's gotta be probably some like soy sauce that's smoked.
Chris: No, I think it's like legit. Like they collected smoke and they like distill it,
Corey: really
Chris: spirit? I think so.
Corey: You know what I
Chris: have
Corey: no idea. Research
Chris: it for the future, but
Corey: It's super good.
Chris: So we're gonna do an episode in the future on cheating.
Corey: Yeah.
Chris: There we go. Example is bacon wrapping? Cheating is liquid. Smoke cheating. Look at you. I know.
Corey: Hitting it all
Andy: together. Call this call. I think that's a new name for it though.
Cheating. It's, call it the cheater. The cheater straps in the cheater
Corey: strap.
Andy: I got cheater straps. It's like I'm in marketing guys.
Corey: So I did a I did a brown sugar and liquid smoke marinade, all my words. Okay. And then I air fried it for 12 minutes at 400 degrees.
Chris: Dude, that we'll honestly discuss that later in this episode.
But yeah, that sweet, savory combination.
Corey: I'm a
Chris: huge fan. You got me wanting to try it real bad. You should have brought it. Sorry. I killed it. Yes. Actually I'm, mine's so weird. I can't not stop thinking about it. So David Chang has a Netflix show. Have you guys seen this?
David Chang. He does the, is it Momofuku Noodles? He's like a ramen. Oh yeah. Kind guy. Look, his show up on YouTube or on Netflix. Excuse me. It's wicked. This guy's mind is. Insane. And I actually have to look at it right now 'cause I don't remember. It's a SOIs, I think he calls it.
It's basically like he takes onions in like a cast iron pot and cooks 'em down in butter. Butter and vinegar. And it's like the weirdest sounding thing of all time. But what he did with that is he had a, he had this big bowl and he layered in a bunch of potato chips and he put six eggs that he cooked.
Kind of like over easy or over medium.
Corey: Sounds like you're making this up.
Chris: No, it'ss legit. It's, I saw it on Instagram. It's like it's legit on his Netflix show. It's one of those
Colton: things that
Chris: just
Colton: not sound good, but I'm sure Case, it sounds
Corey: like he figured this out
Chris: in his dorm room
Corey: at 3:00 AM after a night at the bars.
Chris: It's not done. It's not done. Listen, more so we've got potato chips, we have eggs that are fried. What is it called? When they're like, when they're running on top, but like solid on the bottom. Like over, over easy.
Look at the episode. Sunny. Tell me in the comments, you know what type of egg I'm describing here.
So you got the eggs. And then he puts these, this onion SOIs. Again, it's onions, butter, and vinegar. Like I'm cringing as I'm talking about it, but I'm also like equally intrigued. On top of the onions, he puts caviar and then he puts like some herbs. I don't know exactly what the herbs are.
I wasn't listening that close, but
Andy: I can't even
Chris: imagine what this
Andy: would taste like.
Chris: That taste it. Absolutely. They're like freaking out.
Andy: Have you made this yet, or you just
Chris: I have not tried it. No. But I want to. Yeah, it's, I saw it and I was like, I need to try this. Got it. I don't know if I'm gonna like it and I probably won't, but I need to try it.
I need to try it. Probably won't. David Chang's. Yeah. Onion soupies
Corey: onion. I wonder if the acid from the onion, neutralizes the vinegar.
Chris: When you cook 'em like he did anytime you have caramelizing onions, like that's, they turn sweet. It turn sweet. So you've got like the sweet onions, sweet vinegar, kinda the salty chips, the salty cavi.
Andy: I bet the chip sugar in it. So is it gonna get salty? I don't know.
Corey: I bet it would neutralize
Chris: the eggs, protect them.
Andy: I don't know. I don't know.
Chris: That's, we need to try it. We'll come back after you draft a new episode. I don't even know what
Andy: this looks like.
Chris: New episode coming out on weird food. I should have had it on the computer.
I failed. I'm sorry guys, but, okay. Very good. Look it up. Look it up in yeah. Tell us what you think. It's gonna be interesting. All right, Colton, what do you got? You're up my turn. To segue us
Colton: into chili, I actually made chili this week. I made it last night, so I had to prep a little bit.
I added maybe we'll talk about it later, but I added some unique ingredients to my chili this
Chris: time. Dude, we can just start the chili episode right now. Did
Corey: you, did you use your Dutch oven?
Colton: I did use my Dutch oven.
Chris: Goodness.
Andy: Yes. Only way to do it. Now those
Chris: the, for those you that listen
Colton: to the gear episode,
Chris: not
Colton: one of my top items,
Chris: not the cast iron,
Colton: the
Chris: enamel is that
Andy: enamel, Dutch
Chris: enamel chili that screws up the cast iron.
Oh yeah. Once you've got like some crazy beastly seasoning.
Corey: Yeah.
Colton: Yeah. So my chili, I do a couple weird things that people may or may not feel like they want to try. Number one, I, after I brown the meat and vegetables I and add the tomato paste, I deglaze the pot with orange juice.
Chris: Ooh.
Colton: Which adds a very unique, I dunno if I'm interested or sweet turned off.
Andy: There's eggs, there's vinegar,
Colton: summery flavor.
Andy: Wait, different top of candy. The golly
Corey: say. Say that part again.
Colton: So after I brown the meat. Cook the veggies, I add in the seasonings and tomato paste and cook it all in there. And it, you get this really hard layer on the bottom of the dutch oven. And I deglaze it with a mixture of,
Andy: Oh, I see.
Okay. So
Colton: yeah, with orange
Andy: juice. Orange juice. Bring the stuff the,
Colton: yeah.
Andy: Cooked bits back brown back up.
Chris: There's a term for that, but I don't know
Andy: it. The brown bits is what it always, and all the cookbooks. It's usually brown bits.
Colton: Yeah. Brown buts, brown bits.
Andy: Yeah.
Colton: But when that orange juice hits the pan, the smell that comes off it is.
One of the better things I smell. Really.
Andy: Okay.
Colton: It's fantastic.
Corey: I need to smell it. It's like a si sounds like it'd be like a simmer pot type situation.
Colton: I don't know what that is, but could be.
Corey: This is, we need guys always making front of my rusticness, rustic
Andy: simmer pot.
Colton: But I'm my
Corey: that'll be on the Christmas episode.
Colton: Yeah. Yeah.
Andy: That's awesome.
Colton: But yeah, my general go-to with chili I vaguely follow a recipe. But. I just buy whatever fresh peppers I can in the store and just my wife does not like a lot of meat, so I do heavy veggies.
I know this is a little controversial for some people, but I do sweet potato.
Andy: Oh my God. It's not chili.
Colton: I didn't even know that was a controversy, but what,
Andy: yeah potatoes
Colton: and chili. Yeah, that.
Andy: That's not chili. It's stew.
Colton: It's chili. Oh,
Andy: here we go.
Chris: Yeah we're drawing some lines in the sand here. Alright, con, continue. Continue. We'll try not to.
Colton: The big things I always put in is a combination poblano peppers.
Which adds that kind of earthy, smokey, solid. I use ancho chili powder, not regular chili powder. I like the ancho. For those of you that don't know. Ancho chili powder is, comes from poblano peppers.
Andy: Oh, I did not, I
Colton: did not know that. No dried and ground. And then the unique thing that I added this time was instead of regular salt, I used espresso salt To add to that, did
Andy: you buy this or did you make your own?
Colton: I bought it. Five years ago and found it aged. Found it at the bottom of my drawer. Yeah.
Andy: Yes. Aged espresso salt.
Colton: But the poblano and ancho powder gives it this really like earthy
Andy: which plays with the coffee.
Colton: Yeah. Earthy taste. And that espresso salt, really comes through and it adds a very nice richness to the chili.
Corey: Now, maybe this is a stupid question to ask, but is this a. Venison chili or a beef chili?
Colton: I've made it with both. I did beef this time.
Andy: I'm a big fan of mixing and meats and chili. I do
Colton: the same. Yeah. Yeah. I have become a big fan of half beef, half venison.
Corey: Okay. Okay.
Colton: I've also done it with Turkey.
Some people don't like Turkey. I do. I've been very tempted to try it with duck, but I have not yet. Seems
Andy: like a waste
Colton: duck's so much better. I've heard Dutch chili is really good.
Corey: I think it. I think it would be really tough.
Chris: I think it could be phenomenal, but I would also be worried about it slightly overpowering.
'cause like duck and goose it's such a strong flavor by itself. I don't know if that would, I feel like it could either make or break it, like it would either be phenomenal or terrible. I don't think there's any middle ground.
Corey: I, I just imagine it being really difficult to even just make, because if you cook it too long, man, it's done.
It's awful,
Chris: but if you grind it up real fine.
Corey: Yeah.
Andy: I don't know. This is, I want to like, I want to, we need to get like a sigh count on this episode because there's gonna be a lot of this like god,
Chris: duck and chili. We
Andy: got sweet
Chris: potatoes and chili.
Andy: Oh, cinnamon. Cinnamon too. This is oh,
Chris: it's cinnamon. Oh,
Andy: yeah.
That okay. So normal transition. I don't wanna steal the thunder from feel free here, feel free. But so two things. One, I feel like I'm like just always talking about Frank. My brother-in-law on this podcast one of these days want to have Frank if he's an inspir on the inspir.
But Frank, my brother-in-law sent me a chili recipe six years ago, and it is, he made it like it's his chili recipe. My wife likes his chili and so I was like, Hey. Krista doesn't like any of the chili that I make. Can you please gimme a recipe? And so he sent me his recipe. So every time I make, every single time I make chili, I literally get on my phone and I look in my email and I type in, and he labeled the name of the email.
I'm not lying, bur it's chili. Oh jeez. Oh geez. So I literally look it up every single time in the original send, actually, this is even further back. We need to get
Chris: you a cookbook, man.
Andy: So I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, this is from, I thought it was 2019, but it's actually, it's originally from when he sent it to my Yahoo account.
'cause who has one of those anymore? In January 24th, 2011 is when he originally gave, sent me that email dang. But. It has, it holds up. It holds up, it has cinnamon in the recipe. And my wife and I lived in Cincinnati for three years. And we are a Skyline family. Sorry, gold star folks.
We are a skyline. But Cinnamon does belong to chili. So
I would agree. I would agree with that one.
Chris: I will say cinnamon is not in my recipe.
Corey: Should be.
Chris: I I'm not knocking it. I just don't know.
Andy: Yeah.
Chris: I need to try.
Colton: Yeah,
Chris: try. But
Corey: You use cinnamon?
Colton: Yep. Cinnamon and chili. Do you put
Chris: sugar as well?
Is sugar a good ingredient?
Colton: I do not add sugar there.
Andy: There's brown sugar in mine.
Colton: Sugar,
Chris: yeah.
Colton: I get a lot of the sweet from other things in my chili. So for example, potatoes. The sweet potatoes.
Andy: Yeah. 'cause you put sweet potatoes in,
Colton: Hey, for those of you have not tried sweet potatoes and chili.
That's just Now do you dice it?
Andy: Like what's the shape of the potato when it goes in diced. Okay.
Colton: Yeah. I don't just put a full sweet potato.
Andy: I didn't know if I didn't are my head. I'm my question is, are these like what we just had stew like hash browns? Those were like chunks versus yeah.
Finally, I don't know, I'm just curious. No one puts it in there,
Corey: cut thin like a carrot
Colton: the way I like my chili
Andy: orange.
Colton: I think the texture of a dish plays a huge role.
Andy: A hundred percent agreed.
Colton: So I try to vary the textures in my chili as much as possible. So you've got peppers, you've got sweet potatoes, you've got meat, you've got beans.
I also throw in half my beans at the beginning and half near the end so that they're bearing textures.
Corey: All right. He's getting fancy
Andy: psychopath dish like eating. I don't, this is, I'm not opposed to it. This is the thing we gotta start thinking about. We gonna, we're having these my mouth is watering, like some of these hard cord conversations about these textures.
I, I feel like I need to try this because I don't know if I agree or disagree.
Chris: I'm already interested to read the comments on this one. Yeah. What does the world think about. Sweet potatoes in chili. Is it, like Andy said, is it no longer chili at this point? Like where do you draw that line?
Like when does it become something different? And I don't know what,
Colton: what defines chili though? I feel like you could
Chris: add pretty much, let's look at Miriam Webster right now.
Andy: This is like a, this is like a, like what all bourbons are whiskeys, but not all whiskeys are bourbons. And this is the situation.
Like all chili is stew, but not all stew stews are chili. I don't know.
Chris: Wow. I typed in chili and it's just giving me chili peppers.
Corey: The ICS defines traditional red chili as any kind of meat or combination of meats cooked with red chili peppers, various spices and other ingredients.
Andy: So this is why it's controversial.
Corey: This would controversial and
Andy: other ingredients.
Corey: It is
Chris: wide opened. So all stew is chili. If you put a chili in it, if you put a chili in it, a chili is the defining.
Corey: But here's the thing, it says pepper chili. That makes
Chris: sense.
Corey: Okay. It calls it traditional pepper chili. I don't know if I'm actually making chili.
Then.
Chris: What?
Corey: Oh, wait, what kind of peppers do I use? It gets it, it gets further. It says with, so all of the spices and other ingredients, with the exception of past.
Chris: What?
Andy: Wait a
Chris: second, everyone, which is
Corey: strictly forbidden.
Chris: Everyone. What website is
Andy: this? Hold on. Everyone in southwestern Ohio is angry right now.
Right now. Right now. What what
Colton: website are is a thing? Put pasta in their chili.
Andy: Have you ever been to Skyline Sale?
Chris: Some people
Andy: clicks.
Chris: Some people put pasta in chili
Andy: made spaghetti, bro. Chili.
Colton: I have been to Skyline, but I would not consider that chili. I would consider it chili on top of the noodles
Andy: side count
Chris: number seven.
I'm with Colton. I'm with Colton. I think the addition of pasta is like, it's like putting cheese on chili. It's an optional add in. It's
Corey: not like I, I, so we don't, we don. When we do it, we cook it separately. If you want it, you have it
Andy: agreed. No one puts,
Chris: okay.
Andy: Let's be very clear.
Chris: We're not
Andy: gonna poop.
No one's putting past,
Chris: we're not gonna poop on anybody's chili here.
Andy: No one's putting pasta in the chili. You put, people do that though. Chili goes on pasta
Chris: people do that and it's chili Mac.
Corey: Yeah, like elbows. I have a family member that I am not going to say because I know they're gonna listen to this.
That does.
Andy: They're gonna
know.
Corey: And you know what else they put in there that I, sorry, that I hate. Huge tomato chunks.
Andy: Oh yeah. That's
Corey: my love language. See? And that's not,
Andy: I like a chunky chili.
Corey: Oh yes.
Andy: I like chunky chili. But there's a difference between you do putting full and peeled tomatoes and doing diced.
Corey: Yes.
Andy: Your tomatoes should be ed. Big
Corey: difference.
Andy: If you're not dicing your tomatoes you're not making chili.
Corey: I do both.
Andy: I
Corey: do I do a can of the whole tomatoes and a can of diet. That's another whole conversation.
Chris: I have so many feelings right now. These are like, I'm talking like
Corey: these are like
Chris: a spin full of just tomato.
Yes. With some, no, I need whole tomatoes in my chili. Just my word. Yes.
Andy: So noodles,
Chris: let's go. Let's go back to noodles,
Andy: right? We're, let's
Chris: go back to the noodles.
Andy: So I'm, what I'm advocating for, again, I feel like I'm just defending Cincinnati here. But. Yep. Chili is a thing that you can have by itself or on things.
Could we agree on that?
Chris: I'd agree on that.
Andy: So it can be on a hot dog that's called a chili dog. It can be on pasta and that's called Cincinnati. It can be by itself and on crackers. You can eat it. You can eat however you want. The chili, it can be, it's one of the few things that is a, both a topping and a dish.
Corey: I'd agree with that. I'd agree with that. That's fair. A hundred percent. Because I eat it very differently than how my wife eats it.
Andy: How's that,
Corey: bro? I put a half a pack of Ritz crackers,
Andy: I'll
Corey: go behind
Andy: crackers.
Corey: I, and when I say a half a pack
A half a pack of Ritz crackers, but my wife, she takes a Ritz cracker and then puts a little bit on it and then eats it.
Andy: Enjoys it that way. Yeah.
Chris: It's interesting.
Corey: But I think it's because I like it. So
Chris: you're eating chili, like as. The main ingredient. And she's like using chili as a topping?
Andy: Yes,
Chris: but I'd almost, or is he, or is Corey putting
Andy: pasta in his chili via cracker? Like it's just your carb.
Corey: See I go a
Andy: choice.
Corey: I, I use other things in my chili that I think is, could be, I think people find a little on the side, people don't, some people do it, some people don't. Some people think I'm crazy.
Chris: What's that? Tell us,
Corey: dude, I cannot eat chili without peanut butter sandwiches. What?
Chris: That's odd. What is this episode of?
This is odd.
Corey: I, I love and I and I was butter
Chris: and chili,
Corey: but I was recently introduced to. Chili with cinnamon rolls.
Chris: That was legitimately on my list to talk about.
Corey: And have you had it?
Chris: I've not
Corey: wait. It's on
Chris: it.
Corey: I think same way with like my peanut butter sandwich. Like you're taking a bite of chili, you take a bite of cinnamon roll, but
Chris: it's like the cinnamon roll is your side.
Corey: So for me, like with a bowl sugar, I can have a bowl of chili, but I will have i've tried to cut it back one peanut butter sandwich, but normally it's two peanut butter sandwiches. With it. And but it's just it's no different than, and I'm not gonna go too far off topic here, but it's no different for me, for Don for the world so
Andy: far off topic
Corey: you call it.
But I, I don't eat tomato soup without grilled cheese.
Andy: That's okay.
Corey: That's fair. It's the same for me. Okay. So chili to peanut butter sandwich is the same thing for me. For tomato soup to tomato.
Colton: I, I was not with you until you made that comparison. And now it makes a little more sense to me.
Corey: The ral
Chris: or the
Colton: soup.
Both
Chris: the grilled cheese,
Colton: the, I would not eat either personally with my chili, but,
Corey: but it's the same. I can understand it. It's, it comes back to the savory, sweet, and savory.
Colton: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: It's a, the sweet and savory is absolutely like a legit.
Andy: Like combination.
Chris: Yeah. We all know that. Like pineapple and pizza.
That's another episode.
Andy: Another one's cornbread.
Chris: Yeah.
Andy: Is another favorite with chili.
Chris: Semi-sweet. Yeah. But not
Andy: gives you not like
Chris: cinnamon roll level.
Andy: Sweet. I'm just saying that's weird.
Chris: How do,
Andy: is that maybe cornbread is a gateway drug too.
Corey: But here's the thing I want to, I wanna challenge you the next time you do your cornbread.
Instead of salt, do sugar.
Andy: You're just thinking really sweet cornbread
Chris: then. Oh, every time I make cornbread it's half sugar.
Corey: Oh, okay. Yeah, so it's a
Chris: really sweet cornbread
Corey: is to begin with. There is a restaurant down in New Albany, Indiana.
That is called the Exchange. Jess and I have driven down there for the jalapeno cornbread.
Oh man. And it's served hot in a cast iron skillet. Smothered in honey butter.
Andy: The Eagles. Yeah. Have you been to the eagle? Down on mass. A You guys don't even go down to drive that far?
Corey: No, they haven't.
Andy: Yeah. Oh, do, there's hot honey on top. Oh yeah. It's,
Corey: what is it made with sugar?
Chris: I'll do
Andy: hot. I don't know.
It's
Corey: delicious. It's this is they serve it as like a dessert.
Andy: I don't know. Give it a go.
Corey: I'll give it a go. 'cause it'll save me a two hour drive.
Chris: Albany. Yes. Let let's go back to the the cinnamon roll. Legit. Who's heard about that? Raise your hand, Cory.
Just recently. Yeah. No, I've heard about it, but I've never tried it. I don't recall where I heard about it, but I did a little digging. And I ended up on all recipes.com. Like I get a ton of recipes from that site. I love it. But they've got an article like breaking down this whole like chili, cinnamon roll like phenomenon and it's it goes back to the sixties and like apparently it's just like it was a school staple.
And nobody knows like exactly where it started. Like Iowa takes credit, Colorado takes credit. Like it's a, it's definitely a Midwest thing.
Corey: A school staple.
Chris: Seriously? Yeah. Some lunch preparer person, like just, I don't know if it was a wacky idea they had or trying to tick the boxes of Hey, we need to give 'em a bread item and so many carbs or whatever.
But like whatever,
Andy: there's a food pyramid in here somewhere,
Chris: Whatever led to them making that decision like. School attendance and participation just skyrocketed. Like every time there was chili, cinnamon rolls on the menu. Wait,
Andy: kid. But I would argue that you put cinnamon rolls on it.
Chris: Yeah.
Kids are gonna come to school for cinnamon rolls school, but it's it's that particular combination. Yeah. It's that sweet. Savory. I don. I don't know why. Again, I've never had it, it's not an Indiana thing.
I've never had that on my lunch menu. But I guarantee you, if I was a little elementary school kid again oh
Corey: yeah,
Chris: I would try that a hundred
Corey: percent.
Chris: Heck yeah.
Corey: We just had some friends that introduced it to us over Christmas time. And it was, I enjoyed it, but I was already, I've already been doing peanut. You've been doing the peanut butter? Peanut butter, yeah. So it's a, it's the same thing. That's wild.
Andy: So oof things I'm have to go home and.
Inadvertently try. I am. So I'm gonna cinon
rules now.
Andy: I didn't realize how like my feelings would be in this episode.
Corey: I will say that I don't do, I don't do it with my Venice and chili 'cause I do a white Venice and chili.
Andy: Ooh. So let's talk a little bit about meats. 'cause you touched on this earlier, Colton, but I'm a huge fan of mix and meats when I make my chili, and I do it for a couple reasons, one.
It's a way for me to sneak venison in on my friends and family. Yep. Okay. Because they, 'cause people, I being all of us understand this as hunters. Being part of families where not, maybe not everyone hunts in the family. So there's a lot of controversy around potentially on what, eating venison or not eating medicine, whatever.
But one of the great ways of introducing Wild Game to people who have never had it before or in dishes like chili. So I'm a huge fan. It's one of my go-tos. And you mentioned Turkey too. So one of my favorites to do is I'll do, I call it Three Meat Chili, and it's, it's basically a third.
Benison, a third ground beef and a third Turkey. Definitely, man. And it's, it literally gives you all the meat profiles that you would want.
Chris: Yeah, let's back up though. It's, I wouldn't call it a controversy like it wild game, like it's a little taboo, like in some circles, but yeah. I think controversy is the not a
Andy: controversy.
Yeah. Yeah. I meant more I just like the idea of It's a great way of especially if you're not Oh, it is. Yeah. I feel like Chili's almost one of those recipes. It's a good, like what do we have leftover type of like foods that we. Put together in a pot. That makes sense. According to the dictionary, as long as it has chili in it, it's, yeah.
Chili.
Chris: Chili peppers. Yeah, you could, yeah I'll be honest, my wife is not like the biggest wild game fan, but she'll eat Venice and Tacos. She'll eat Venice and Chili, so a hundred percent. Yeah, it's, I
Andy: need to know that, what you did to make that happen, so I can make that happen at my house too.
Corey: Yeah,
I would
Andy: say.
Corey: And my wife and I make chili very differently. Oh yeah. My wife has a very specific recipe. She makes it the exact same way every single time. I was super bummed because I was in freaking Tampa last week and they had chili at our house. With all the friends, and I missed it.
But she doesn't do venison. She does beef, but granted we have local beef and it's a different taste. And now that I've been buying my cow from friends the last two years I will not touch store bought beef. It's different. It is. And it makes your dishes taste different.
It's so much better.
Chris: I would agree. Yeah. I'm definitely on that multi animal protein as well, but I do have pork. So I do like a roll of pork sausage. Oh, okay. And then a roll of venison. So a pound of each.
Colton: I've never tried pork and chili before.
Andy: That would come with choices for me personally.
Corey: But Have you done? Yeah. Have you done the sausage? You've done the sausage in chili? I know some people do that. I've
Chris: sausage.
Andy: Yeah, it's
Chris: spicy pork breakfast sausage.
Corey: The
Andy: recipe I referred to earlier for Frank his has pork sausage in it. I just obviously don't use that part of it. 'Cause pork doesn't love me as much as I love it.
Chris: Yes. I don't think there's any more controversies to cover. Is there, I guess there's chocolate, like some people put chocolate.
Corey: I've heard
Andy: there's cocoa in mine. There's coco in mine as well. Yeah. Yeah. Cocoa powder. Yeah, I use cocoa powder in it.
Corey: Do you taste it? Does it, does the profile come through?
Andy: I think it's more for color to be completely honest. Okay. I think it changes. Does it give
Corey: it a rich,
Andy: rich, dark color? Yeah. So again, going back to like the chili recipe that I utilize, and again, it's not mine, it's my brother-in-law's. And it is a very, like what I would call a traditional Cincinnati like.
Chili that's got cinnamon. It's got chocolate in it, it's got beans in it. That's another controversy if you go out south, beans is con down south. If you're in the New Mexico Texas area, that sort of thing, you're not gonna find beans in their chili. But it is a very Midwestern thing to utilize.
Yeah. But what I love about the dish is that it is versatile. You're putting sweet potatoes in your Colton and that's an example of it's a phenomenal tool I think to. Feed a family relatively inexpensively. So good. And it's so it's so good. And I think it's, and it's
Corey: better the second day.
It just, it's
Andy: better. Yeah. We were just talking about this when I got here, about how one of my favorite things to do with my chili is, I don't know if you guys do this too, but I. I, I take half of it and that's what I'll eat for the week. 'cause you guys know I meal prep, so like I'll take half that for the week, but the other half I freeze and I'm so pumped to get that other half out later on because I feel like the leftover version of it is so much better.
So it's,
Chris: I dunno why it's almost different than 'cause you could cook it too long initially.
Andy: Right.
Chris: But those flavors need time to mix and to meld.
Corey: Yeah.
Chris: And that second reheating, like even just from the fridge the next day. I would agree. Yeah. A hundred times better. It's
Andy: one of my favorite
Corey: meal pop.
Do you microwave it or do you put it back in a
Chris: pot? I do not.
Corey: I
Chris: like it,
Corey: put it back in a pot.
Chris: I I despise the microwave. It just, I'll use it when I need to, but if I don't need to I'm always stuffed
Corey: up
Chris: or oven,
Corey: if I'm on the move. If I'm on the move, I use the microwave for sure. But if I know that I'm just.
Can actually sit down and enjoy it. I prefer to throw it back in a, I would agree. Pot.
Andy: Yeah.
Colton: It's also a great, you were saying, you can use lots of different things in it. It's versatile. It's a great dish If you. Yeah, don't necessarily cook all the time and you're trying out some recipes. Yeah. It's a good dish to try out some new things in because it's
Andy: it's safe.
Colton: It's not gonna turn out bad.
Chris: Like orange juice.
Andy: Like orange juice. Yeah. No, on that point, again, like the ethos of this podcast in general of being okays at. These things. Chili's a great one. And to play one. Because it's fixable too, I think. I think if you, especially if you're like we talked about Yeah.
We can
Chris: always add beans.
Andy: Exactly. We talked about this. You can always take out the noodles like we talk about tasting. Like tasting ingredients along the way. Yeah. While you're making things Chili's a great example of something you can try as that you're making it and you're gonna get a good idea of what it's gonna be like for sure at the end.
So if you've got some stuff that you wanna play with or some new chili peppers, or you gotta, you go to the, go to a farmer's market for instance and pick up something that you haven't played with before. It's a great opportunity to test
Corey: I think. I think it's a great one too. 'Cause even just down to your seasonings, like
You, you bringing us like the Texas dust or like new man, like new brands, I feel like can change the profile of it for sure. Oh yeah. Based off the quality of ingredients they're using.
And I'll be honest I love regular chili and there'll be times in the spring where we'll just open our windows and our house just to cool the house down just to enjoy some chili.
But. I think I make one of the best chilies because I do a white venison chili. I was gonna ask you about this white chili go, but I use, I don't use heavy cream. I use, tell us more about this. I use Greek gogurt, Greek yogurt gurt. And instead of heavy cream,
Chris: yeah, we use
Corey: that.
It's like a white chicken chili, but I just use venison. Same. And then you use use kidney. Ground.
Andy: Ground.
Okay. Because like traditional white chicken chili's got
Corey: Shredded. So I guess it's honestly whatever I have at that point. Like I will use ground or I will just go through and I'll just shred up like a, I'll be I this last time I shredded up some of my back straps.
Oh my God, there,
Colton: I've never thought to use a dark meat and a white chicken chili recipe.
Corey: It's a different profile. It's not like you cannot think of it as a white chicken chili. Okay. It has interesting, it has a different profile, but I think
Chris: guys I have so much homework to do now.
Corey: I think using the yogurt rather than the heavy cream
Andy: helps Krista does that. My wife is a huge fan of using the instead of cream. Yeah. She'll use the Greek yogurt or the yeah. That's a, it's actually, honestly, if it's a great sour cream substitute, if you're someone who like to put a lot of sour cream on their chili or in their chili.
Try it with the Greek yogurt. It'll it's good.
Chris: A little bit healthier maybe?
Andy: Probably. Yeah. I
Corey: still use the chicken broth though.
Chris: See my wife has a white chili, white chicken chili recipe and it's to die for. I love it, but I don't how she makes
Andy: it. Is that a wife thing? So Krista does too. Is that, does your wives make white bean chicken chili?
Chris: Dude, Jess's is incredible. I love it.
Colton: Yeah. Sierra does actually.
Andy: Is it like a guy? Is that a lady? Did he just stumble? I don't wanna, I
Corey: don't wanna stereotype
Andy: anybody either. Do I? But at the same time Christa's white, all of our is amazing. Do it.
Corey: Yeah.
Andy: But cilantro, I love it. Yeah.
Krista's
Corey: a lot. Cilantro. But some, and some people, a lot of, so some people don't consider it the same though. Like we had a chili Cookoff, it's
Chris: two totally different things.
Corey: We had a chili cookoff and someone did the white chicken chili and was it dq? It wasn't, should have
Andy: been.
Corey: She got, I think she got second or third place.
Oh man. But it's a different profile. It Different profile.
Andy: Profile. That's what, that's where it's yeah, I don't like that.
Corey: Those are,
Chris: it's almost cheating because
Corey: those are, it is.
Chris: 'Cause my wife's I'm confident has like a brick of cream cheese in it. And of course that's gonna be
Andy: goods delicious.
You put it on butter and cream cheese,
Corey: those are like, I don't know if maybe I'm weird. And I might a little bit, I might, we all are know that, but when my taste buds are prepared for something, don't change it on me.
Andy: I agreed. Okay.
Corey: There, if I'm coming over to eat chili, my taste buds are already prepared for chili.
See that?
Andy: You could maybe add some sweet potatoes, but don't bring white beans.
Corey: Don't bring white beans in and cream cheese.
Andy: Right.
Corey: But it's like mom. My wife gets mad all the time. 'cause if we're eating something and she's eating something different at a restaurant or something, she's always especially after, it's always after I eat in my last bite.
You wanna buy this? You wanna try this? No. I don't, she's like, why? 'cause I have a good taste on my, it's gonna ruin Yeah. My experience. And I don't like yours. I have nothing left to, she's so you say my food is not good. I can't fix it.
Chris: I
Andy: can't fix it. That
Chris: is hilarious. I love
Andy: it. Wow. I never thought of it.
That's, again, I chilies another one of those meals that I feel like you do hear about this. Like it's a good cold weather dish. 'cause it sticks with you, right? Yeah. Like it sticks with you in a lot of different ways. And a hundred percent would agree with the.
Corey: I think
Andy: that's not adjusting the profile.
I
Corey: think that's always the go-to meal for hunting season two. Oh yeah. 'Cause I'm fortunate enough that my parents have 40 acres. My mom and dad are both big hunters. My mom's taken bigger bucks than I have. And it's a thing, when we go down there, and I even remember as a kid, if we got to a point, as a kid I couldn't sit the full day.
I gotta come in at lunch. There was always one of two things. There was either a pot of chili on that my mom had put on before we left for tree stands, or there was potato soup. And that's just a staple. And and I, when I start smelling those things, like I'm getting into hunting season I'm getting ready to gear
Chris: up.
Those memories are like so vivid. Yeah.
Corey: Oh yeah.
Chris: Just getting that whiff of something. Yeah. For sure, honestly, like I've got almost the same thought like that scent memory of a bitter cold goose hunt I was on, I was hunting on by myself and it was just like. It was like in the single digits.
And that's bitter for me here in central Indiana. I didn't see a single thing all day, but I remember like taking a break to go to my truck. And I had a Stanley Thermos full of chili and it was still just like piping hot. And I was like, oh, this is like saving me
Corey: back. When Stanley was cool.
Sorry.
Chris: Hey, Stanley's coming
Andy: back. I was like, I feel like
Chris: Stanley's cooler now than it's ever been. I know it's a different kind of Stanley.
Corey: Do you remember that? That day that we were laying out in the middle of that field in Hamilton County? And it was like raining and sleeting. Oh, yes. And we didn't see anything.
And we, yeah, I think that was like the first time. And I had just gotten my layout line for waterfowl and that I did not put anything in the bottom of it. And there's just not breaking wind at all. And that was the first time I ever thought in hunting. I was like, this is stupid. Why am I laying out?
It's freaking the, in the wind, it was super windy that it's because we didn't have
Chris: any chili.
Corey: We are, we're laying in the center. Of a field
Chris: Yeah.
Corey: Of a freshly cut cornfield in the middle of Indiana, in the middle are of Indiana, and it was sleeting rain on us and I just, I remember yelling at Chris, I'm like, this is stupid.
Why? Why? Why didn't we just meet up at Rosie's and go have breakfast?
Chris: Isn't that what we ended up doing?
Andy: We did confession, dunno where the geese
Chris: were,
Andy: but they got up immediately. Winter ies,
I'll
Chris: say
Corey: we made it till 10 o'clock.
Chris: Yeah,
Corey: We got past
Chris: that second flight down. How do you, they were just elsewhere. Let's go back to beans real quick. Like we didn't touch on beans.
Have you guys ever been like, like you said, Cory, like you get in the mode for chili and like your taste buds are expecting something. Exact, like I know exactly what you're talking about. 'cause it happened to me one day and like I'm just now putting the threads together in my mind is I showed up and like they put this soup in front of me and I say soup because it was like
Andy: runny,
Chris: almost like they blended it, like they were like almost no chunks in this chili.
And there was zero beans. And I was just kinda I don't know what to do with this. Give it back soup. Yeah. I was like, thicken this up. Finish preparing this dish for me.
Corey: What? Going through this gastro thing, I had to take beans out of like my diet and so my wife
Chris: keeps telling me I need to do that, but
Corey: Jess, so Jess made me like a small batch of it and it just wasn't the same.
No, it's different. I'd almost rather endure the pain.
Colton: Beans are the number one thing. I use a different combination of beans every single time I make chili. I do too, i's the number one thing I play around with. Yeah. Yeah.
Corey: And but is it like, is it always red or kidney?
Colton: No.
Corey: No. No. Really?
Andy: No.
Colton: The last time I used chili beans and black beans.
The time before. I did use red and
Corey: like a southwest. Does it give it like a south?
Andy: So I always have black beans in mind because I love black beans because Krista will eat, won't eat it without it. So the black beans have to be in there, but I can, so like way I started doing is like slowly putting some kiddie beans in there and then get in some chili beans.
And then now it's like a thing when I go to, I prefer Market District is the store that I shop at. A great Eagle. Yeah. Great Eagle location and they have a lot of really cool. Beans in their, both their Hispanic is as well as in just the really, a whole like bean section in their canned vegetables section. And so I always it's like a thing that I look for now. It's what other beans could go in there and, honestly the beans have a texture, right? They have to be called known and feel, and that's the, that's what I'm talking about. So the question is what does it do? The flavor profile.
And so that's, you
should
Chris: try, you guys talk about all this like experimenting and you're making me want to get outta my ru it's not a you do things
Andy: the same.
Chris: It's not a re
Andy: same thing
Chris: done. I've got a recipe and it's it's dialed. I don't wanna say to perfection because nothing's perfect, but it's dialed.
It is very good. I will say like I, I do fudge on like the exact quantities of specific ingredients, but the ingredients themselves are like always consistent. Yeah, like I'm always using three beans, kidney, pinto, black. I'll give you the full recipe here at the end of the podcast. But and again, sometimes like it's just, it's based on what you have because like you don't always feel like going to the grocery store.
So yeah, like some things will shift inevitably because you have to. But I've got this exactly the way I like it and it's phenomenal and I'm stressed out of the idea of trying an orange juice chili or like trying like some cinnamon chili. Like it's almost, ah,
Andy: I don't know how I feel.
What's the worst that's gonna happen, buddy? You just start over. I have a bolus.
Corey: Something I don't like. I would say we don't touch Jess's recipe.
Chris: Yeah,
Corey: that's the staple. If friends are coming over. I might make a little pot just because. I'm probably the most, without saying too much, I'm probably the most cultured when it comes to food in our group of friends.
And I think it's come to this place of they rely on me to try new things when they come over. And so I like to like always have. 'cause if you don't
Chris: try it, they won't or,
Corey: No, like I think it's, I, so Jess and I are the oldest of the group. Yeah. And so we have some, we have a few younger couple friends that we I don't wanna say we mentor, we love on and they're part of our core group of people.
Sure. And I think we just have lived a little bit more life and we are we're adventurous, we're known as the foodies of the group. Nice. We're always trying new things, which is crazy because up until I was about 15, which is when I was adopted. Bro, it was bros burgers, steaks. That was it.
Which there's
Chris: nothing wrong with that,
Corey: but that was, I literally had the food palate of a 4-year-old. Until I was about 15. But then the family that adopted me. Was cultured and they traveled and we took vacations and I learned to open my palate. And then when you go and you're in another country and you have to learn how to eat things differently, it changes your food palate.
Chris: Absolutely.
Andy: Yeah. I know the one thing we do and maybe this is, I'm curious what you guys, how you guys feel about this is. So heat of chilies, I feel like a big, not controversy, but a conversational piece. Yeah. Of like how hot is too hot and do you make it a certain way? So I, my
Chris: house, my house is very divided.
Andy: Yes. Very divided here. Again I like a chili to be, I don't like heat for heat's sake. So if it's hot just to make it hot, I, that's where you lose me. Yeah. But chili naming, inferred. It is gonna have a little bit of beyond pop from you would think so previous. It's gonna have a little bit of kick.
A
Corey: little bit kick.
Andy: So one of the things we do at our house is I make it like a one way like plane, and then you can always kick it up with some cayenne.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. It's cheat. It is. It's different though. Like I said going back to earlier, like we talked about the melding of
The pot. I think if you make a hot chili, like you need to make it hot from the get go. From the get
Andy: go, right?
Chris: Yeah. With the start of the
Andy: pepper,
Chris: it will be better. Yeah. The, but yes, if you've got a wife like mine who like despises anything close to a jalapeno level of heat, like yes, I have to put in my own spice after the fact and it's okay, it's passable, but I have been known to make two pots of chili, like my pot in Stephanie's pot.
Andy: That's a good wave.
Chris: And I like my chili, at the edge of regret. If you can finish a bowl and you'd be like, man. One more sprinkle of ha habanero dust, would've just set me over the edge. That's perfect.
Colton: That's no matter how hot you make it to the type of peppers you use can significantly change the flavor.
Corey: Oh
Colton: yeah. Think that's why I could
Chris: always like back to like heat for flavor's sake, not heat for heat's sake.
Corey: Right.
Colton: But I personally, I mean as you guys know from earlier, I like the flavor of poblano jalapeno peppers. That's what I, using my chili.
Chris: Yeah.
Colton: And they're also not. Too hot for most people, but even if you're going hotter than that, I mean using a habanero versus a guillo pepper, like they're gonna have significantly different flavors even though they're both hot peppers.
Corey: Does your, and does your wife eat it?
Colton: She will eat mine. That's primarily why I stick to jalapeno poblano. I would add the store normally has a lot of it's whatever the store has too. There's normally a lot of Serrano peppers at most stores, so I prefer some of those. I
Corey: would be little too hot.
It'd be interesting in. Five or six years to ask you that question again. Yeah. When your little girl gets to eating it and see how she does it.
Colton: Yeah.
Chris: I got to a point honestly where like I would slowly, like I tried to acclimate my wife to like spicy things. Because I love spicy things and like I did get her to a point where she was like infinitely more tolerant.
But then something happened.
Corey: We were the opposite. She got me into more spicy things. But I if, like you said, if it's just hot to just be hot and to make my nose water, like I don't wanna touch yours.
Andy: Yeah. No, that's bad. That's the one thing I think that, like, when people talk about like cooking and, whether or not they're, like, they see themselves as a good cook or a bad cook and things like that.
The, I like, one of my questions I asked like, how do you like your wings? Because if you're, like, there's levels of wings that like you get to a point where like you're just making them hot to make 'em some sort of silly challenge. Yep. Have a marketing ploy, that sort of thing. Yeah, that's and it's just a bummer because I feel like there's a lot of really good I.
Chilies out there that you can really get that flavor profile that you want and still have that kick so that it's, it still has that bite. Yeah. To that edge of regret, as Chris would say. Yeah. But at the same time, you're not sacrificing flavor just to have heat.
Corey: Yeah,
Andy: it's one of the big problems I think with the Midwest in general as far as our pepper selection goes.
Sometimes it's rough. It's tough. We go to the grocery store. Yep. And we're having to, put, what would be typically what I would refer to as an Asian chili pepper into our chili. Yeah. That is, it works, but for the heat, but it's not, it'd be way cooler to do with something that's a little bit more like South American Mexican, definitely.
That sort of thing. Definitely.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely important to find like those grocery stores, like in your area, that do specialize in like different cultures, like the specific ingredients from different cultures. Like not just your own.
Andy: Yeah. Go to
Chris: special store. Cigarro is a good one here in Indianapolis.
So is that the one in
Andy: Castle? Like one in Castle?
Chris: I think they have two. There's one downtown, one in Castleton? Yeah. Phenomenal selection of just again, not taboo. Not taboo type ingredients. Yes, definitely. But they've got whole octopus and all that stuff. I think
Corey: when
Chris: you spend different culture right?
Ingredients, yeah. When
Corey: you spend significant time overseas too in, in other cultures, I spent so much time in Africa you just learn like the flavor profiles.
Chris: Yeah.
Corey: I'll be honest. Like we just as Americans I think we just struggle a little bit. A hundred percent. But that, I think that's why I love.
The multiple cultures of friends that I have, just because I'm always getting introduced to new things. And the fact that I am considering where my food palette was before and the fact that I'm as adventurous as I am now is night and day. And I love, and I think going back to that though, I think chili, it's the way to live is such a great way to enter Yeah.
People into that,
Andy: that I'm just entering into, like entering in different you can melt some cultures in chili, right? Yeah. It's like quite literally a melting pot, right? Like you could take some of the things you learned from these different cultures, like a serrano pepper and put that in there.
And you, there's things that you can do from different cultures that make it your own version of chili. So I encourage you, Chris, to get out of your. You're perfectly made chili bubble. I'll try my orange juice chili play, play with some orange juice.
Corey: I, I would say, I think one thing that's pretty cool that I've heard so far on this episode is the fact that you've had that recipe since 2011.
Oh yeah. Yes, dude. That's a family recipe now.
Andy: Oh yeah, for sure.
Corey: It is your kids, passing that to them. I'm just
Andy: waiting for Frost email to kids Austin be like, Hey, I gotta make chili. Do you have a recipe? I'd be like, do I ever? Yes.
Corey: And that's, and how cool is it that it came from his uncle?
Oh yeah. Sure. That's phenomenal. Yeah.
Chris: That's
Corey: pretty
Chris: cool. Let's let's agree to share all the recipes. We're gonna wrap up here pretty quick with my recipe, so you guys will all have that. But Colton definitely, share us give us the juice. The juice. I'll try a pot.
I'll the juice. Literally give tea pot and see what I think. I don't know if I can put. Noodles in my chili though, so please don't ask me. Chili
Andy: on noodles, man.
Chris: I can try chili on noodles. Just make some elbows separately. There you go.
Andy: Yeah,
Colton: I guess one quick thing before we wrap up here too.
Yeah. That I just thought about is right the whole point of this podcast where, we're all pretty average at cooking, but we enjoy it. Okay. And we're trying to up people's game a little bit and one big thing, which I think we could put into pretty much any podcast, this goes for everything but.
Where you source your ingredients from Yeah. Is a very simple step to take your chili up to the next game. Yes. Even if that's making it in the summer so you can get local produce. So much better than just get into gardening so you
Chris: can grow your own peppers. Yep.
Colton: Yeah.
Chris: Yep. We've got that episode coming up soon.
Yep. But
Corey: I love it. That's good. That's a good bit.
Chris: Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Let's wrap it up here with my personal, actually, scratch that. We're not gonna wrap up quite yet. Any hot tips on chili? One hot tip came to mind. We talked about cornbread earlier, and I didn't have time to interject, like making cornbread waffles.
Have you guys done this? Do you have waffle iron?
Corey: No.
Chris: Make a corn. I do. Make a cornbread waffle. And top that with your chili. Holy crap. That's good. That's good.
Any of the hot tips? You,
Corey: I do enjoy, like if I'm not using crackers, I will use cornbread. The same way I use crackers.
Andy: So mine so I've gotten, we kinda mentioned this before, I think on a previous episode, but I make what? It's a bread rep. Bread recipe that I got from a friend of mine, it is just five ingredients. It's not even really like real bread you're using or cheat code for sure on the baking side of things.
But it's beer bread, right? There's a can and a half of Miller Light in it. It's delicious. But that. As like a dip into your chili. Oh, yeah,
yeah.
Andy: So eat your chili, whether you have noodles or don't, or just a bowl of it or whatever. But just using that as a dipping scenario is another option.
Like a
Corey: peanut butter sandwich.
Andy: Like apparently a peanut butter sandwich. Yes.
Corey: I would say be adventurous. Man, like for sure. Yeah. If you mess it up, you mess it up. Chili for the most part is pretty cheap to make.
Andy: And fixable.
Corey: And fixable. Yeah. If the if you finally get it to a point where you're loving it and you've got a pot and a half of it, go share it with your friends.
Or, freeze it because it is really good and frozen and, I would say just take a moment to just allow yourself to just be free with it. I've never, I never use a recipe with chili anymore. I'm just, sometimes I just go and start throwing stuff in there and see how
Chris: it tastes.
Yes. Yeah. Agreed. I need to step outta my comfort zone here. I'll do it. I'll report back with my findings and please down in the comments. Yeah. Instagram, YouTube, tell us. Absolutely. Is orange juice Okay. In chili and all of the other controversies we've brought up today. So without further ado, this is my chili recipe, Chris Zo, this chili recipe.
I like my chili thick and chunky. This is not a dippable chili, like you're gonna have a hard time putting a cracker into your bowl. Starting out with the meat, I've got one pound of ground venison, one pound of bulk Italian sausage, and half a pound of bacon. Pre-cook your bacon diced up real small.
Put that in the chili vegetables. I've got four 15 ounce cans of beans. This is any combination but I use kidney, pinto, and black for my recipe. I've got 2 28 cans of tomatoes. You're gonna put that in with the juice. One of my cans is diced and one of my cans is whole. I like to see my ingredients.
I need that whole tomato in there. One six ounce can of tomato paste. One tablespoon minced garlic, one large yellow onion chopped up. Three stalks of celery chopped up. One green bell pepper, one red bell pepper, two green chili peppers. Insert your favorite pepper here. Poblano, ancho, whatever you want in the seasonings category.
Th this is the one ingredient. Sometimes I don't have four cubes of beef. Bullon chicken. Sometimes that shake chicken, sometimes I don't. Yeah. A quarter cup of chili powder. A tablespoon oregano, tablespoon of cumin. I do cheat on the cumin. I do like mine pretty heavily. COO and up.
So sometimes I'll put in two tablespoons. Sometimes I just dump it until I feel like stopping. A teaspoon basil, dried basil, teaspoon salt. I used smoked salt and that's phenomenal. Next time you do any kind of smoked product on your smoker, if you've got one, just throw in a cookie tray of salt, just like flaky salt, and just make your own smoked salt.
It's phenomenal. Or just throw on some liquid smoke. Or you could use liquid smoke black pepper. Another one I cheat on recipe says one teaspoon, but I typically use like a tablespoon of that. I do a lot of black pepper teaspoon, cayenne pepper. If my wife is eating it. If I'm eating it, it's more like a tablespoon.
I also used dry habanero if my wife is not eating the chili. Yeah, so table, not a tablespoon of dried habanero. That's too much. Yeah. Teaspoon dried habanero teaspoon of paprika and a teaspoon of white sugar onto our liquids category. I do a quarter cup of beer, like any kind of dark brown beer is good.
Local beers here in Indianapolis. I use, we mac a lot. Guinness is really good. I do a tablespoon of Worcestershire wor Shire sauce. The W sauce, a tablespoon of that. So I cheat on that too. I like my W sauce. And then two teaspoons of hot pepper sauce, like Tabasco, something like that.
Anything with that acidity. I like that. Instructions. Shoot, man, you just, you brown your meat properly. Listen to episode one, do your research, see how you like that. But properly brown your meat. And then just combine everything. That's it. Simmer it for at least two hours of stirring, occasionally taste it after that, adjust.
And then honestly, the longer you simulate, the better.
Corey: What
Chris: agree with that. Don't go eight plus hours. That's way too long. And then it is better the next day. So put it in the fridge. How,
Corey: how much does that make?
Chris: Ooh, see that's another good question. That's for me, that's like we split it into half and I freeze half of it, and we could eat half of it for probably.
Two or three meals. Okay. But I eat a lot of chili, so for the average person,
Colton: so that's rough. Roughly double my recipe. And mine's only good for Gotcha. A week. And we don't freeze any,
Chris: I've got more hot tips here. I would say even double. What I just told you to make. You need a big pot.
Yeah. It's a big pot. You need a really big pot. Yeah. But I love to freeze my chili just because it's so easy to reheat. I've got a sous and a chamber back sealer from Anova, and I love it. So I use the chamber vac to freeze my chili with no air gaps in there. It's phenomenal.
And then honestly, I just throw that in the cve vac bag in the sous V. If I know I'm gonna, I've got kids, I've got three kids. Sometimes we know we're hungry, but we don't know when we're going to eat.
Andy: Yeah.
Chris: If you put chili on your stove, like it's gonna burn, the bottom's gonna get gross. Yep. In the CUV V, you set that to whatever temp you want to eat it at.
And if you are, if you're going eat in an hour, it'll be done. If you're gonna eat in four hours, it'll still be perfect.
Andy: We're gonna need to do a full episode on, as I test it out. It's my favorite thing. It's my it's honestly on, on our, go back to the episode of our Top Five Things list.
It was another item that I very, you almost
Chris: put on there,
Andy: seriously considered batting.
Chris: It's, they're clutch in like very specific situations. But they're tricky to use sometimes.
Colton: I have not had. Very much luck using them.
Chris: Oh, no. We'll talk about it. It's a different episode. It's a different episode.
Any final tips or thoughts on chili? We good? Did we cover all the topics? Let us know in the comments if we skipped anything, if we need to address any chili topics in the future. But again very much appreciate you guys tuning in. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Tell us all your chili tips and tricks in the comments.
Definitely let us know your thoughts on some of these controversies. What side of the fence do you guys live on as always? Email us at hello@okscook.com. Hello, at okays cook.com. Search okays cook everywhere. We'll be there. Love to chat with you. Thanks so much for tuning in. And tune in next time on Pasta.
