Yesterday's Smoky Chili

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Bumppo

Meat Mopper
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jun 22, 2021
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We had my brother and his family over for a football day, so I made a couple pots of chili. The first one was a sweeter chunky style that I've been making for a few years, but I wanted to have a little fun and make up a new recipe with a smoky profile.

I started with a 4lb chucky and rubbed it with 2 parts kosher salt and one part each of black pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, and cumin and let her rest overnight. I got everything into the smoker at about 9am Saturday morning and let it ride with hickory over a tray of beef broth. I also threw in a package of bacon and some poblanos to give the chili a little extra.
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The first thing I learned I learned is that 2.5 hours is way too long for the poblanos to stay in there. All but one pretty much turned to mush. Turned out to be the magic number for the bacon, though.

Once the roast came out of the stall and I was happy with the bark at about 3pm, I poured the liquid gold from both pans over the chucky, covered it in foil and let it finish in the oven. I let it rest, covered in the oven until it was cool enough to handle and shredded it. It came out better than I could have imagined and I'm probably going to use the same rub for tacos and nachos in the future.
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I was rushing to prep the house for having company over, so I didn't get any pics of the chili process, but it went something like this:
I started by chopping up the bacon and rendering whatever fat was left in it in the stock pot. Then set aside the finished bacon and sauteed a diced onion and some garlic. Then went in the one good poblano I had from the smoker. After a can each of diced tomatoes and kidney beans went in, I added in some black pepper, paprika, chili powder, and cumin until I had the smell I was going for. and then a diced jalepeno to get some heat.

And this is where I messed up. Instead of beef stock, I got a little too out of hand and added a can of Guiness. It overpowered all the other flavors and basically changed everything I was going for. So in goes another round of spices and another half a jalepeno and we got it back on track.

Now that I was happy again, I added a couple cups of stock and about half the tray of chucky. Way less than I expected, but I'm not complaining. Now I have plenty to play with for other uses.

I only made a small batch, since it was experimental, but got eaten quick. And now I have almost an entire pot of my tried and true chili leftover for lunches for the week.
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Love a chuck or brisket chili like that, especially with the smokey element. Glad you were able to adjust it and have it turn out good. Some of my best recipes started as not so great and after adjustments become keepers.
 
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Looks and sounds tasty. I never thought about shredding the chuckie for chili. I've always cubed it.

Point for sure
Chris
 
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Love a chuck or brisket chili like that, especially with the smokey element. Glad you were able to adjust it and have it turn out good. Some of my best recipes started as not so great and after adjustments become keepers.
I was definitely afraid I lost it for a bit. Turned out to be the best chili I've ever made!
 
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Looks and sounds tasty. I never thought about shredding the chuckie for chili. I've always cubed it.

Point for sure
Chris
My other chili is a mix of ground beef and stew meat. But This added a really great texture and thickness.
 
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