This used to be one of my signature dishes for the bar menu at The Olde Inn in Cape Cod many many moons ago and people used to order it in the main dining room because they had it prior at the bar and liked it. Just dug the recipe out when a friend asked me if I had any good chili/beer recipes so thought it might be fun to post.
Apologies for the stock photo, I know we took photos back in the day of all of our dishes but heaven help me if I can find where they are now going on 20+ years later.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 lb. Nueske smoked bacon or another good quality smoked bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons pure olive oil
- 2 red onions, small diced
- 14 each plum tomatoes diced, you can substitute canned if needed: 2 ea 12 oz diced canned and drained of liquid
- 1 medium Holland bell red bell pepper, small diced
- 1 medium Holland bell yellow bell pepper, small diced
- 1 lb ground beef, (ground pork or buffalo can also be used), chicken can be used but not everyone likes it’s paired with the Guinness
- 1 large jalapeno pepper, de-seeded, de-veined and fine chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, fine chopped
- 2 cups Guinness beer
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce, I prefer Tabasco Chipotle flavor
- 2 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro
- 3 ea 14 oz. canned cooked black beans or about 7 cups fresh cooked black beans
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons cold water
Preparation:
- In a cast iron skillet sauté bacon until cooked through, remove the bacon to drip dry on a paper towel, save the drippings in the pan.
- Add the olive oil to the bacon drippings and then add the onion, tomatoes, peppers, and ground beef
- Sauté on high for approximately 5 minutes (or until ingredients are cooked through) and then add the dry spices and hot sauce and sauté for an additional minute.
- Remove vegetables and meat and deglaze the pan with the beer, do not reduce.
- Add the meat and vegetable mix, the cilantro, the cooked bacon and the black beans into the beer and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by approximately a quarter.
- In a small dish, blend the cold water and arrowroot or cornstarch to make a slurry, add the slurry into the simmering bean mixture and cook on low heat for about a minute until the mixture thickens.
- For a thicker chili, you can add additional slurry to get to the consistency you want. Season with salt to taste if needed.
Garnish with Sour Cream or my favorite, Cabot Jalapeno Cheddar, and cilantro sprigs
*This can also be cooked in a crockpot as well if you prefer it slow cooked, it’s still best to cook all of the ingredients seperately first and add about a 1/2 cup more beer to the pot before cooking down a bit.
You can also substitute great northern beans for the black beans or do half and half.
We recommend cooking the beans seperately as they have very different cooking times.
This also freezes really well.
—-This recipes ALWAYS tastes better the second day!!
Serves 6-10 depending on serving size