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4.20.2011

Chili!


One of my favorite days of the week is Sunday.  We get up early, make breakfast, workout, and head to our Farmer’s Market.  I LOVE the Farmer’s Market.  Since we order most of our produce and veggies from an organic produce delivery service (L.O.V.E. Delivery for you LA folks), we usually grab all of our meat, herbs, fruit, and whatever else looks good on Sundays at Farmer's.  The grass-fed, pastured meat from Rocky Canyon Farms is the best our market has to offer.  Not only is most of it half of the Whole Foods’ price, you get it straight from the farmer!  We have been stocking up, since we can easily go through a couple pounds of ground beef each week. 

One of my favorite ways to put this delicious ground beef to use is in chili.  I make a HUGE bowl of it and eat it alllll week (remember: leftovers are Paleo’s best friends).  This particular recipe was adapted from the obnoxious Food Network duo Pat and Gina Neely.  Good BBQ food, painfully bad cooking show (just my humble opinion…sorry Neely’s).  Anyways, here it is!

The Best Paleo Chili.

Ingredients:
·  4 slices thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
·  4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
·  2 medium onions, chopped (in case you have trouble chopping onion, I made a video to help you)
·  1 red bell pepper, chopped
·  1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
·  2 small jalepenos, seeded and chopped
·  3 tablespoons chili powder
·  1 tablespoon ground cumin
·  1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
·  2 teaspoons dried oregano
·  1 tablespoon smoked paprika
·  Approx ½ teaspoon cayenne (if you like it hot, go nuts)
·  Some cinnamon (less than a teaspoon)
·  Salt and freshly ground black pepper
·  1 pound grass-fed ground beef
·  1 pound ground pork (organic or pastured, if available)
·  1 cup beer (recommended: any Chocolatey or Coffee Stout) **sub some beef stock for stricter Paleo.
·  1 (24-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
·  1 (24-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
Spices
Chopped veggies
 Lots of ingredients, I know…but most are spices that will definitely be used in many future culinary endeavors, I promise.

First, put the bacon in a cold pot or Dutch oven with a little olive oil and turn heat to medium.  When bacon is near crisp and starting to brown, add all the chopped veggies and the spices and stir to mix.
Bacon browing
Veggies, spices, and bacon
Cook the veggies until they get soft and smell awesome.  Now add the beef, and break it up with spoon and stir until it starts to brown up.  Add the pork, and cook the entire mixture until both meats are no longer pink and are broken up nicely.
Veggies look good...add the meat!
Meat is browned and ready
Pour in the beer (or stock) and simmer for a few minutes.  I love a little chocolate/coffee flavor, so I use beer that lends a little bit of that.  Add crushed and diced tomatoes, and turn heat to low.  Simmer for an hour and a half or so stirring periodically.
In goes beer, then tomatoes
The payoff! With my favorite side salad: arugula, avocado, and red wine vinaigrette.
Eat it!  Box of the leftovers, then eat it again tomorrow for lunch!

1 comment:

Alexis Bessa said...

YUM! Love this chili- so flavorful!