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Autumn is a favourite time of year in my family, as the evenings draw in, a big bowl of warming chilli is difficult to beat, you can cook this in a wood fired oven or a smoker/BBQ, and all you need is a large cast iron dutch oven or similar.
I like to use a mix of leftover smoked brisket, skirt steak and good quality minced beef for an interesting range of textures, leave any fat on the meat as this will just render down and make for a tastier chilli.
Ingredients
1 kg leftover smoked brisket
1 kg skirt steak cut into 2 cm dice
1 kg good quality butchers mince
2 red onions finely chopped
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 each of red, green and yellow peppers finely chopped
1 tin of black beans
2 cartons of passata
1 330cl bottle of lager
1 rich beef stock cube
2 squares of 80% dark chocolate
A double shot of espresso or a teaspoon of good instant coffee
2 tsps cumin
2 tsps of chipotle powder or paste
1 ancho chilli finely chopped
Salt and pepper to season
Method:
Dice the brisket and skirt steak to a 2cm dice, place the skirt steak and mince into a searing hot pre heated large dutch oven that has been getting hot in a wood fired oven, or on the bbq.
Allow to brown for a few minutes before moving with a wooden spatula, once fully browned add the brisket, garlic, onions and peppers. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Once the veg is browned and softened, add the rest of the ingredients, and continue cooking for at least 1 hour with the lid off (to pick up smoke) then a further 5/6 hours at low temperature, about 140c with the lid on, until the meat is falling apart tender and the black beans are cooked through.
I often find the chilli is better the next day, in which case pop in the fridge overnight.
Serve with all the usual condiments, sour cream, guacamole etc. We enjoy ours in a sweet jacket potato wrapped in foil and cooked in the embers of the wood fired oven.