Home made Salsa Chili

[ez bake]

So I've been making the hell out of some Salsa from scratch lately and I decided the other day that I would try and add my Salsa to some browned Ground Beef and beans. No other seasoning (I honestly wanted to see if my salsa could pull off chili without any help).

Turns out - it can. Tonight I did it a second time with 4Lbs of Ground beef and some beans. I'm honestly thinking of entering this into a chili contest - it's entirely from scratch - all the veggies were fresh just moments before they were chili (and it's honestly pretty friggin good).

Anyone else making homemade salsa and/or chili?

 

[dennishoddy]

Right click....save

Thanks!

 

[Poke78]

Good thing this is an Oklahoma forum rather than a Texas forum...I hear they frown on people making chili with anything more than meat and chili powder, let alone adding beans to the mix.

Whatever works for you works for me and I'd eat it if you asked me over. I personally like the 2-Alarm Chili kits from the grocery store as the starter for my chili. I also add Rotel to mine which would be similar to you using your salsa. I like extra onion in mine. I don't get to use the cayenne pepper packet from the kit because my wife says that makes it too hot.

 

[cobra1]

I'm honestly thinking of entering this into a chili contest - it's entirely from scratch - all the veggies were fresh just moments before they were chili (and it's honestly pretty friggin good

Do it!!!! My son entered MY chili recipe in a contest and won first place! BUT, this was in Ohio, probably wouldn't get a mention in Okahoma or TexASS, If I had your salsa recipe I would greatly appreciate it, I promise not to enter any contests, I just wanna make my chile better.
1 pound ground round, 1 can Rotel, a jar of Pace Chunky, Black beans, Red beans, chili powder,and cumin, salt of course. It's best to cook the beans in a crockpot on low so the beans are not falling apart and mushy. Now I'm hungry...

 

[TedKennedy]

How in the heck can you make chili without Anchos?

 

[swampratt]

I use beans in my chili and deer meat..
My homemade salsa is used in many things...A spoon full in some mashed avocados with a bit of lime and some more seasonings makes great guacamole.
My garden if full of cilantro right now..
You can freeze cilantro and use it in your recipes.
Anyone near here is welcome to free organic cilantro.
At least after the thaw..

 

[david04]

Is there cumin in your salsa? If not how can you make chili w/o cumin?

 

[ez bake]

Well - I honestly mix it up every now and then just to try new stuff, but the basic ingredients are:

4-6 Jalapeños (depending on heat/size - I typically do 3 and add more as I see fit)
5-6 Tomatoes (depending on size/taste)
Fresh Green Onions (This gets tricky but I usually buy them in a bundle of about 10-20 but I only usually end up adding 1/4-1/3 of them)
Yellow Onion (if I use half of one, it's a lot)
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
5-6 Tomatillos
4-6 Green Chilies
3-5 Red Chilies
1-2 Limes
Garlic
Sea Salt
Cilantro


Now in all honesty, I've been getting lazy with the larger batches lately and using Lime Juice (fresh, not concentrate), Dehydrated or powdered garlic, canned Green chilies, and a Red Chili paste that comes in a tube in a refrigerated area of the produce section, but to be fair, red and green chilies are some of the hardest to find (fresh) peppers out there.

I just got a new multi-speed Ninja food processor that eats most of the above ingredients whole or with minimal cutting - and that has made a huge difference in prep-time and flavor (I'm not having to dice everything up and I don't lose juice, and pepper seeds, etc.).

I'll get wacky and add stuff just to change it up from time to time. If I can find different interesting peppers, I'll throw 3-4 of them in just to change it up, but I've added a lemon into the mix with my lime and the last batch had a kosher dill speer in it (made for an interesting taste, but it is almost overpowering). I'm kicking around the idea of adding a red delicious apple into the next batch.

The secret is to leave out a little of each ingredient just in case you need more of it later (I always leave at least one tomato out just in case I need to thin out too much onion or garlic taste). I've used habanero peppers, but it's hard to find good ones around here unless you know someone who raises them in a garden (and even then, when you make as much as we do, those folks get tired of giving you all their peppers).

Also, it's important to remember when you're dealing with raw veggies, the first moments after you blend/mix everything is not how it's going to taste after sitting together for a while (leave it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before screwing with it too much - I was ending up with too much onion/garlic every time because I was fidgeting with it immediately after mixing it instead of letting it sit for a while).

I used all organic produce to make salsa one time, but the flavor was way down - turns out all this chemical and genetic modifying we've been doing to our produce makes it taste better, so I'm going to stick with the mutant food for now.

I'm looking at figuring out if I can get some smoked chopped beef from a local barbecue place here (he can run it through the beef-chopper a few times to end up with a near-ground beef but much higher quality and smoked) for my next batch of chili.

I'm also going to end up charcoaling/smoking up some roasted veggies for a batch before too much longer (my salsa ends up being pretty thin and the roasted veggies make for not only a different taste, but a thicker overall consistency).

So far I'm having fun and the kids enjoy it (and they like to help out). The fact that it makes for good chili is just icing on the cake.

I've used Bush's Chili beans (which come with their own chili-flavored sauce), but I've also just used drained low-sodium black and pinto beans. The cool thing is that if you aren't happy with the flavor, you can add a dash of chili seasoning or whatever while it's stewing and usually get it where you want it pretty easily.

I've yet to use cumin (I did use oregano one time - it wasn't bad), but I'll have to try it next time.

 

[Walrus]

Cumin is for Texicans and Tacos. I hate the stuff. (and this from someone born in Tejas)

Chili is a simple thing which millions have managed to complicate.

 

[TripleD]

I've been making my chili based off of when Diners Drive ins and Dives was at the Diner in Norman.

Put raw ground beef in large pot, add canned tomatoes, diced onions, cumin, chili powder, pepper, salt, turn on heat, stir, cook covered. Half way through cooking add some more of the spices. There still should be liquid when its done cooking. I add some flour to thicken.

I sometimes add some kind of diced beef, like stew meat, etc. in addition to the ground beef. I use rotel tomatoes. I also add some diced jalapenos from a jar. If I have some around, I'll add a bit of beer, or beef broth.