Kettle Smoked Chili

[ChadRex]

I made some Weber Kettle smoked Chili in cast iron dutch oven.
I used Matt Pittman's Meat Church- Texas Chili recipe

Started the morning off by smoking 2lbs Chuck Roast with oak chunks. Spritzing occasionally with Worcestershire & beef broth . Once internal temp hit about 170, I put in foil pan with some beef broth to braise it for about an hour.

• Prepped my 3lbs ground meat ( I used 90% lean ground Angus) browned in cast iron skillet.
• 3 red onions chopped, sauteed until translucent.
• 1 whole garlic clove minced -about 3 Tbsp
• 1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce chopped and sauteed with the onions & garlic.
• Add the onions, garlic, chipotle peppers and ground meat into a cast iron dutch oven ( mine is a 7 qt.).
• Add the following to the Dutch oven
  • 1- 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes.
  • 4 - 14.5 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes.
  • Add chuck roast cut into chunks into dutch oven.
• Stir in 3-5 tbsp. Chili seasoning mix
  • Carroll Shelby's Texas Chili seasoning or Meat Church Texas chili seasoning are my favorites.
  • - I ran out & had to use store brand . Still turned out amazing.
• Pour in can of bock or amber beer ( i used Shiner) & 1/2 cup of beef broth (this is optional but I do it so it doesn't dry out too much).

Set up my Weber kettle indirect heat with Weber charcoal baskets using Weber GBS grate put cast iron dutch oven in the center. Threw in some oak chunks and let it smoke around 200 - 225 for about 4-6 hours. Stirring every 30- 45 minutes. The longer you can smoke it the better the flavor.

For the kettle you can set the dutch oven on top of the grate or even on a couple of fire bricks set on the charcoal grate. For a stick burner or pellet smoker just set the dutch oven directly on the rack and let it smoke for several hours.

I garnish with cheese & fresh jalapenos.

 

[ChadRex]

Wanted to add that this was my first time using Fogo Charcoal Briquettes. They worked out great, lit fairly quickly, lasted a long time with very little ash.

 

[Richard S]

Oh wow, I am not quite ready for chili season to start but man that looks incredible!

 

[ChadRex]

Oh wow, I am not quite ready for chili season to start but man that looks incredible!

Thank You. The kids wanted "burgers & chili" this past Labor Day weekend. So I decided to do it right with smoked chuck & cast iron dutch oven. I will say this was one of the families favorites. The smoked chuck really hit it home.

It was a test run for our annual Halloween chili. This year we are having company visit us from Japan. I'm going to be running 2 kettles & planning on smoking a brisket for the Halloween chili.

 

[timothy]

Looks killer!
My son has the same DO. Do you need to re season it after using tomatoes? I read that the acid does a number on seasoning.

 

[ChadRex]

Looks killer!
My son has the same DO. Do you need to re season it after using tomatoes? I read that the acid does a number on seasoning.

I have also read that cooking tomatoes in cast iron will require re-seasoning after. I did end up doing 2 cycles of re-seasoning on it.

I made my own cast iron seasoning using beeswax & grapeseed oil.

1 part pure beeswax 3 parts grapeseed/avocado oil

 

[J Hasselberger]

I love smoked chili, especially smoked brisket chili. Since I often smoke a brisket for 4-8 people, I always have leftovers. With 2-1/2 to 3 lbs of leftovers, I usually make a gallon or os of smoked brisket chili. The above recipe sounds like it would be a natch for brisket. Here's my recipe FWIW.
Jeff

 

[ChadRex]

I love smoked chili, especially smoked brisket chili. Since I often smoke a brisket for 4-8 people, I always have leftovers. With 2-1/2 to 3 lbs of leftovers, I usually make a gallon or os of smoked brisket chili. The above recipe sounds like it would be a natch for brisket. Here's my recipe FWIW.
Jeff

Wow, thanks for sharing this.
I always do a brisket chili on Halloween.
It's my family's favorite part about Halloween.

 

[AndyK]

That looks amazing Chad.