The SHOCKING SECRET to great chili
Uncover the shocking secret to making great chili! This recipe reveals the unexpected ingredient and techniques that elevate your chili to a new level of deliciousness. Follow along as we guide you through creating a rich, flavorful chili that's sure to impress. Perfect for a cozy meal or a crowd-pleasing dish at your next gathering. Don't miss out on this game-changing secret!
Transcript
00:00Chili is a very broad category of stews or soups descending from Texas and northern Mexico,
00:06which of course used to be the same place. And in my humble opinion, there is a secret
00:10to a perfect bowl of chili. Gotta start with some chilies, of course. You can use fresh,
00:15you can use dried, you can use a mixture — hot, mild, whatever you like. A bell pepper is
00:20a mild chili.
00:21You can cut them in half and pull the seeds out, just because the seeds are kinda yucky.
00:25And if you want to limit the heat, you can pull out the ribs in which the seeds sit.
00:29I just cut each of these halves into strips so that I can cut across the strips to get
00:33a nice dice. Any kind of onion will do, just a rough chop on that. Remember, it's a stew.
00:38It cooks a while, so the pieces are gonna fall apart. They don't have to be perfect
00:41or especially fine.
00:43Some oil in a pot, throw in the veg. You could also throw in some carrots or cauliflower
00:47or something for some extra vegetables in your diet. I'll just cook that over pretty
00:51high heat for about 10 minutes to soften everything, give it all a head start. That looks good
00:56enough. Remember, it's gonna cook some more.
00:59Chili isn't always a tomato-y stew, but in its contemporary form, it's usually a tomato-y
01:04stew. I like this brand of canned tomatoes, not an ad, and the fire-roasted kind are really
01:09good for chili. I'm doing two big cans of crushed tomatoes, but you could use less.
01:13You could use tomatillos and make green chili.
01:15Now, of course, chili in this context is short for chili con carne — chili with meat. So
01:21we need some tough cut of beef, suitable for stewing. I'm using oxtail today. And no! Three
01:27or four cans of beans. That's the secret. Chili is beans in spicy tomato sauce. Yes,
01:34originally it was meat, but it has evolved into part meat, part beans, or sometimes all
01:39beans. And who among us needs more beef in our diet? Just eat beans.
01:43In the 21st century developed world, beans are better for individual and planetary health.
01:48For most meals, for most people, beans are better. Soak some dry beans overnight if you
01:53want and then throw them in, but cans are almost as good and far faster.
01:58Of course, the secret is to drain and rinse the canned beans. And no! Just dump in the
02:02bean juice! The bean juice is just some of the soluble carbs and proteins and such from
02:07the bean. For a stew like chili, we need some water, and we need a little starch for thickening,
02:12and the bean goo is full of starch because beans are seeds, just like grains. They just
02:16have more protein than grains because of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that grow on the roots of legumes.
02:21Oh, what about the added salt in the bean goo? Well, weren't you gonna season your stew
02:25anyway? Just don't add as much salt.
02:28Anyway, bring that to a simmer. If you're using soaked, dried beans, you'll have to
02:31simmer them for at least an hour or two until the beans are soft. Canned beans are already
02:36soft, but the stew does taste better if you simmer it anyway for like a half hour.
02:41Now the spices must be the authentic mixture of — no! There's no such thing! Just dump
02:46in stuff from your spice rack until you like how it tastes. Cumin is pretty standard, as
02:50would be some kind of dried smoked chili. Smoked paprika is easy to find, and it's
02:55not spicy. You can always add spice with cayenne or something if you want the heat. Oregano
03:00is pretty standard, and pre-packaged chili spice mixes usually include a ton of garlic
03:04powder for a reason. Garlic powder is the easiest way to make nearly any stew taste
03:09way better. I don't even know what this one is, but it's red, so I'm putting it in the
03:12chili.
03:13Chili is just beans in spicy tomato sauce. Make it up as you go along. Stir it in, give
03:18it a taste. Needs way more smoked paprika and cumin, and I think I'll do some mustard
03:23powder too, because I just want more pungency. And I only need like a pinch of salt, because
03:27the canned goods were already salty, and that's totally fine as long as you account for it.
03:31But what you really need to make this authentically Mexican is some of the traditional Mexican
03:36chocolate that they use in savory dishes down there. Or, you can just dump in some dark
03:41chocolate chips. You're gonna get the same exact effect. You won't notice the sugar because
03:45the tomato sauce is already sweet. Honestly, just a little dark chocolate melted in there
03:50really does a lot to make this taste like more than just beans and spicy tomato sauce,
03:54which is all chili is.
03:56That tastes really good. I could eat it every day, and we will for the next three days.
04:01This is what most home-cooked meals should be, in my opinion. A big, nutritionally complete
04:06and mostly meatless stew or soup that you just throw together one night and eat for
04:11the next three weeknights. Get your variety on the weekends. This is a far more sustainable
04:17way to cook and eat for most of your meals, both from the standpoint of your time and
04:22from the standpoint of individual and planetary health. More sustainable. You don't have to
04:26love it. Just eat it. It's fuel for your body so that you can do the things that you want
04:30to do. Not every meal has to be like a trip to the amusement park, for God's sake. How
04:35badly have I contributed to that self-destructive expectation? Just eat beans and sauce.
04:41Mmm. Good.
04:42Hey, now that I've been yelling at you for a while, allow me to sell you something. The
04:46Adam Ragusea custom chef knife is back for sale again at adamragusea.com, just in time
04:52for the holiday gift-giving season. It's almost as though we kind of planned it that way.
04:57Last time we sold these a few months ago, we sold out within a week. It's the same great
05:01knife that everybody seems to have loved so far. Same great piece of German steel that's
05:05easy to care for and easy to sharpen. Incredibly sharp, this is. Same laser engraving of our
05:10little inside joke. And I suppose there is one difference in this new edition that devotees
05:15will notice. There's the price, same as before. And unlike before, we are able to sell outside
05:20the United States this time in these select countries. However, if you're getting it from
05:25those countries, then you're going to be paying some potentially steep shipping and maybe
05:29even import tariffs. Sorry, just this is such a small deal, such a small batch of knives
05:35that we couldn't interest any European distribution houses in doing this with us. It's just too
05:39little for them. So we're shipping them all from the United States, and that's going to
05:42be kind of expensive. But if you have an Adam Ragusea super fan in your life, I'm sure they
05:45will appreciate it.
05:46It's got the same super durable engineered pakkawood handle as before. I will say one
05:51thing I heard from people who bought the knife the last time was they said the kind of shine
05:54on this handle wore off after they washed it for a while. That's a good thing. It ships
05:58with sort of a protective coating on it. It just washes off as you wash it, and then actually
06:03you get a better grip on the knife as it goes to more of a matte finish on here. That's
06:07a feature, not a bug.
06:08And the only bad experiences I've heard about people having when they use this knife is
06:11if they put it in the dishwasher. Do not put a good chef knife in the dishwasher ever.
06:16Always wash it by hand. Dishwasher would mess up the handle.
06:18I continue to use this knife for almost everything I do at home myself. It's everything that
06:22I want in a chef knife. It's got that nice hybrid Asian and European shape that I think
06:27is pretty much perfect. Got a really heavy heft to the handle, nice weight in this full
06:32tang that goes all the way down through the handle. It's one piece of steel. And it really
06:36is the best piece of steel I can give you for a reasonable cost.
06:39Now, some people have noticed that some comparable quality knives are on the market that don't
06:44cost quite as much as my knife. And they asked me, well, does your knife cut better or something?
06:48And the answer is no, probably not. The reason it costs more is because it's got like my
06:52logo and stuff on it, and it's a small little boutique order. We don't have much economy
06:57of scale when I'm only ordering enough knives to be made for, you know, you. It's not a
07:01huge thing. And so, yeah, there's some extra cost associated with it being the Adam Ragusea
07:05knife. But again, if you've got a super fan in your life, this is the holiday gift-giving
07:09season as I record this. It comes in this box, and it's got my little note in it. Totally
07:14giftable.
07:15I cannot guarantee that shipping will get to you by, say, Christmas, but that is like
07:19the whole idea. That's why we're doing this now in the middle of November, to give you
07:23plenty of time to order and get the knife delivered to you in time for holiday gift-giving.
07:28If you're ordering it overseas, I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen. But if you
07:32get on it now, I'm pretty sure we have a good chance of getting you everything that you
07:36need for the big day.
07:37Thank you so much for your support and for your interest. It's ridiculous to me that
07:40people would want my chef knife, but there it is. AdamRagusea.com. Go and get it. Oh,
07:46and keep your vinegars — well, you know.