Ohhhhh dinner time. What to do with you

[magnum3672]

It's cold today.  I want something that will stick to my bones. But I can't decide.  No matter what I make I'm going out to the store (provisions are meager at best today) so I don't know if I should do Beef Stew, Chicken and Dumplings, Chicken Pot Pie, Shepards Pie.

It's so frustrating!

Let me know what you all think.  Lets at least try to narrow it down to chicken or beef (too bad lamb is so hard to come by at a good price here cuz lamb shanks sound deeelicious!)

 

[chef jimmyj]

In this family of Cheffie Kids the #1 requested meal is my POTROAST with Spinners (Jamaican Flour Dumpling)...I like making it with Oxtails but the kids are not into sucking meat off bones so I use a big 4lb+ Chuck...JJ

 

[alblancher]

On a cold day I always vote for Chili or Veg/Beef soup!

Use fresh ground meat for the Chili!

 

[SmokinAl]

I agree with the other Al!

On a cold day chili is our go to dish.

 

[magnum3672]

I've been on the lookout for a decent quick chili recipe.  The one I have is okay but there's no time for the proper heat to develop (its just blazing hot with out relenting which is wrong for a dish IMO).

Chicken chili is another recipe on my list of "gotta haves"

 

[SmokinAl]

Try this one. It's not hot. The list of ingredients in red were part of the original recipe & you can add some or all of them to kick it up a notch.

Al’s chili cook off recipe

List #1

2 lbs. ground chuck 80/20

2 lbs. hot Italian sausage links

1 lb. thick cut bacon

List #2

1 lg. sweet onion

3 green onions

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 orange pepper

1 yellow pepper

2 jalapeno peppers

4 stalks celery

5 cloves garlic

8 oz. mushrooms

List #3

2# tomato sauce

2# diced tomato’s

1 pkg. chili seasoning ( I use French’s )

2 tbs chili powder

2 tsp cumin

¼ tsp worcestershire

2/3 tsp oregano

2/3 cu beef stock

Fry bacon until crisp. Save bacon grease.

Form 4 burgers with the 2# of ground chuck.

Put burgers & sausage links in smoker, smoke burgers about 1 ½ hours, and sausage about 2 hours @ 220. I put them in the smoker cold when I first light it up. If you let the smoker get to temp first then put meat in I would take a half hour off smoke time.

Chop bacon & burgers up into small bite size pieces, remove sausage casing & chop sausage into bite size pieces too.

Chop or dice all ingredients in list #2

Put ingredients in list #3, in large pot on med. heat, also add saved bacon grease

Add ingredient list #2 to pot.

Put burgers & sausage in smoker the same time you start cooking the other ingredients in the pot.

When done smoking and after chopping up, add burger meat, sausage, and bacon to pot.

Total cook time 4 hours, so meat will only be in pot 2 hours. Cool & refrigerate overnight. Reheat the next day. Enjoy!

 

The original calls for:

3 jalapeno's with seeds

1 1/2 to 2 packages of chili seasoning

5 tbs chili powder

1 tsp tabasco

2/3 tsp cayenne

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Magnum, here's a Chili base you could use to make Beef, Chicken or Lamb Chili, if you want,hope you enjoy it and happy cooking:

2lb.-chopped Tomatoes(a large can-32oz.or so,with juice)

1-1/2 cup-chopped Onion

1 cup- chopped Carrot

1 cup- chopped celery

1 cup- chopped Bell Pepper

1/4cup-chopped(mild) Chile Pepper(like a Pablano)

1tbls.- Garlic

1tbls.-salt

Chili Powder to taste(recipe follows) or mild store bought

1 cup -water

Combine in a heavy pot and bring to a boil and simmer for 30min.

Add the Meat of choice and cover to simmer about an hour.

Chili Powder primer- the store bought Seasonings contain a lot of Salt,some of us are prone to retain water when getting too much,so homemade Chili Powder is a good thing...

you will need to find a store that carries some of the ingredients(Wally World does), or a Mexican Grocer(los Comestibla or Panneria).

These are not expensive and will keep for a year in a closed tight jar.

CHILI POWDER

12-dried Chiles- (these can be pre-ground or whole and heated till crisp and ground yourself)

                      Choices of mild Chiles are:Pasilla,Ancho,or Anahiems)

3/4 tsp. -Cumin

1tsp. - Mexican Oregano(or reggular if you can't find the Mexican)

1tsp.-Garlic Powder

Place these ingredients in a large pan and heat until you can smell them (this releases the oils and increases flavor).

Open them and dump the seeds to lower any heat(capsatian) they may have. place in a Coffee grinder and spin them till blended.

Use as Store bought or to taste

Hope this will help you out, enjoy and,

 

[flash]

I agree with the other Al!

On a cold day chili is our go to dish.

Chili is our go to also. We like to mixed hamburger and venison burger in our chili.

 

[chef jimmyj]

So what was the Final Decision?...JJ

 

[magnum3672]

Did chicken and dumplings.  Just eye balled ingredients and the soup itself turned out good (Added a 10 minute roux to thicken it up) but next time I'm going to change up how I do the dumplings. I made a modified biscuit recipe and just dropped in the dough but next time I'm going to roll it out and cut out little dumplings for uniformity and to make them all cook at the same time.

Lots of veggies in it though which I love! Tons of celery which is required for good chicken soup IMO

 

[chef jimmyj]

Nice! Chix and Dumplings are a Fav here as well...The Central PA folks, Amish, and the rest of us call it Chicken Pot Pie, from the archaic German word Bott Boi, a thick Stew with veggies and Noodle type Dumplings...Not a Family Restaurant within 50 miles of me that doesn't make it at least one day a week...I used to do 10 Gallons at a time!...Great Choice!...JJ

 

[SmokinAl]