Mongo Chili
I’ve been making chili for years - decades! And each time it’s a little different. My husband is a traditionalist when it comes to chili - ground beef with kidney beans, over rice. I’ve ventured into chicken chili, stew meat chili, veggie chili, throw-the-whole-pantry-in chili, etc ad nauseam.
But this chili is it. This chili is the culmination of all the years and lessons and flavors, and actually incorporates a healthy balance between my favorite recipes and the Mister’s. We call it Mongolian Chili - or Mongo Chili for short. It’s a purist version of chili, in that there aren’t any beans in it. This chili recipe is great to sit down with some tortilla chips, spooned over rice or potatoes, or however you want to enjoy. Oh ya, and it’s won a local chili contest two years running. This chili is the ONE!
To start, as any good chili does, you need to select your chile peppers. Most of the time I use a couple guajillos for base flavor, then add an ancho and pasilla for richness, and a chipotle and/or dried habanero for heat.
Grind your chiles up - we have a designated coffee bean grinder for this, although some people enjoy a kick of heat with their morning cup;) Add other seasonings to the ground chile powder - and you have your base seasoning mixture.
Now start cooking. Being on the FODMAP diet, I have to take it easy on the onion and garlic - but this chili recipe has so much flavor from other places, I haven’t missed it yet. Use however much you like. I usually start off with the beef, then remove from the pan and cook the onions, add seasonings - and eventually add the meat back in to simmer. Some people might swear the order matters - go ahead and follow your own chili routine.
You’ll notice there is chocolate in there. It’s okay, I meant to do that. The chocolate and cinnamon are my husband’s influence -- and the “Mongolian” part comes from the additions of cinnamon and coriander - in healthy doses.
While there is tomato in this chili recipe, there is far more beef stock. I only add one big can of tomato to 1.3 lbs of beef. Then I add 2c-4c of beef stock to thin it out and cook it down, and help develop it’s flavor. This step started as a “fix” after I put too much chile powder in. I had just started working with dried chiles and didn’t know how much powder they produce when ground up - or how chile powder can act as a thickener. My chili ended up grainy, gritty and SUPER concentrated. I ended up adding a whole quart of beef stock, and cooked it for an extra few hours. The fix not only worked, but made the chili even better!
Sometimes this chili has a bitter tone to it -- when this happens, I just add some brown sugar to bring it back. I used to add honey - but that’s a FODMAP no-no. Feel free to add whatever sweetener you like - maple syrup, agave syrup, etc.
This really is my go-to chili -- and I try to make it a house rule to always have some in the freezer. Good luck, godspeed, and have fun putting your own spin on it!
INGREDIENTS
1+ pound of ground beef
1/2 med onion, chopped
Garlic olive oil
2 gaujillo, 1 ancho, 1 pasilla, 1 dried chipotle, 1 dried habanero chiles
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp paprika
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
1-2 oz dark chocolate
2 T brown sugar (or other sweetener, to taste)
1 large can crushed tomato
1 qt beef stock (or broth) -- start with 2c and add more if needed.