Homestyle Chili with the Flavors of a Sweet Chili Tang Heat. Made with Beef & Chourico Sausages and one pound of Peppers. Adjust the heat however you prefer, either in the Chili or at the table.

Butter up some Dinner Rolls and enjoy that bowl of Chili.

Homestyle Chili Base Sauce

Optionally add in about 1 Cup of cooking wine or Beer and remove 1 cup of water.

Chili Heat level

The Chili Base Sauce itself does not have much heat at all. In this recipe, the heat comes from the Chourico Sausages. You may want to adjust the heat by doing any of the below or combination of.

• Use Sweet or Hot Pimento Paste along with Sweet or Hot Chourico
• Add more Chili Powder, Chipotle Powder, or Hot Paprika
• Add Chili Oil, a little at a time, until the heat is at the desired level
• Types of Peppers added with or without the seeds will affect Heat & Sweetness (Jalapeño, Serrano, etc.)
• Hot Sauce (Buffalo, Sriracha, etc.) can be added to the Chili

Customized Chili Heat

You can also make the Chili as in the recipe below, where the only real heat is coming from the Chourico Sausages added. Then place Hot Options at the table for individual heat levels. Place at the table for everyone to help themselves.

• Franks RedHot Sauce, Sriracha Sauce or other Hot Sauces
• Chili Oil
• Fresh or Roasted Hot Peppers like Serrano or Jalapeño
• Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Flakes, Chipotle, Ancho, Hot Aleppo, Urfa

Tomato Paste

Use a good quality double concentrated Tomato paste. The best place to buy good quality Tomato paste is at a middle eastern store. They carry a ton of varieties and sizes.

This is key to develop that sauce consistency that is just perfect for Chili. Not Crushed Tomatoes or Tomato Sauce, It’s all in that good quality Tomato Paste. It offers the Taste, the Viscosity, and Color.

For a Thicker Chili add more Tomato Paste.

Broth

The Broth is slightly on the weak side, using 2 Bouillon cubes or equivalent in powdered broth to 5 Cups of Water. If you want it on the stronger side, use 3 Bouillon cubes or the equivalent in Broth Powder.

Use 1 of each Maggi Beef Bouillon & Knorr Pork Bouillon Cubes.

Pimento Paste

This just adds so much to Chili, and there are two varieties you can get, Sweet & Hot. It also contains Salt and a bit of acidity.

Use Sweet to better control the heat, and use hot if you love your Chili with some kick.

Onion & Garlic

Almost always used is the combination of Garlic & Onions. It just adds and supports the flavors of the choice of Peppers.

Add both fresh Onions & Garlic, with Dehydrated Garlic & Onion Flakes.

Lemon Juice

This adds some of that tang and does an excellent job at uplifting the ingredients in the Chili. It works really well with Chili Powder. This is probably why we have that Chili Tang flavor that a lot of people really enjoy. It’s the combination of Lemon or Lime Juice with Chili Powder.

A substitute for this can be Franks RedHot Sauce, which brings with it the Tang and some extra heat.

Chili Seasoning

The most common ingredients in modern versions of Chili are a dominant Chili Pepper, followed by Onion, Garlic, and Cumin.

Old El Paso Chili Ingredients

Spices (contains chili pepper), Salt, Corn starch, Onion powder, Garlic powder, Citric acid, High monounsaturated vegetable oil (canola, soybean and/or sunflower), Silicon dioxide, Natural flavour.

McCormick Chili Seasoning

CHILI PEPPER AND OTHER SPICES(INCLUDING CUMIN), ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), ONION, SALT AND GARLIC.

In this recipe, Chili Powder, Smoked Paprika, Coriander, Cumin, and Chipotle Powder is added for the Chili Seasoning. Add more or less based on preference.

Peppers

Peppers are key to a good Chili, and you can get really creative here, combining certain peppers together to create a unique flavor profile.

The Peppers used in this recipe are 1 lb (ca. 454 g) of Mini Sweet Peppers or Green & Red Bell Peppers. Add Jalapeño, Serrano, or other specialty Peppers for additional heat.

Did you know that the oldest Chili recipes didn’t have tomatoes or kidney beans in it. The sauce was made up of Dried Peppers soaked in water. One source states Beef, Lard, Chilies with Salt & Pepper made into bricks that could be dropped into water. It isn’t a Mexican dish either.

Specialty Peppers

Some Specialty Peppers include the below in fresh, dehydrated or powdered form.

If using Dried Peppers, remove the seeds, soak them in water until rehydrated and purée to add to the chili. It’s called a chili, so you can really explore here with all kinds of chilies to accent or elevate flavors.

• Jalapeño
• Serrano
• Chipotle
• Poblano
• Ancho
• Guajillo
• Pasilla
• Chimayo chili
• Mini Sweet Peppers
• Hot or Sweet Aleppo Peppers
• Urfa Peppers

Almost any kind of Peppers can be exchanged with the Peppers in this recipe. You want about 1 lb (ca. 454 g). of Peppers or more. I use Sweet Mini Peppers to bring Sweetness to the Chili, and often Red & Green Bell Peppers.

The addition of Ancho & Guajillo along with de arbol to taste because the de arbol is spicy is absolutely amazing. Soak these dried peppers in water and then purée to add to the Chili.

However, you can mix and match the Peppers with the many Pepper variations however you want to shape the flavor profile. This is the area that I still experiment in, combining different peppers together.

Overall, the Chili should have a Sweet Chili Tang Heat. Depending on the peppers used, adjust so that this flavor profile is still intact.

Some believe that the earliest peppers used in the original Chili were probably Chilipiquo, which grow in the wild in Texas.

Chourico Chili

Beef & Chourico Sausages is what makes up the meat of it. Use 1 lb (ca. 454 g) of Ground Beef and 1–2 Chourico Sausages, chopped up and cooked together. The Chourico will introduce into the Chili both heat & a good amount of Fat, and some color.

Exchange the Beef with Pork or Chicken. It doesn’t matter that these are leaner meats, since all the fat will come from the Chourico Sausages. The fat inside the sausages gets rendered out while cooking the meat and simmering the Chili. It just adds so much to the Chili.

Kidney Beans

Included or omit the Kidney Beans. Use Canned Kidney Beans washed and rinsed well before adding to the Chili.

If you prefer really soft kidney beans, then add them in at the last 5–10 minutes of cook time remaining.

Prefer to have them with some bite? Add them after taking the Chili off the heat to rest and cool down. This way they don’t cook up too long and retain some bite to them.