Need chili advice


 
Don Cash

Don Cash

TVWBB Gold Member
I'm cooking chili tonight for a chili cookoff tomorrow...One that I won last year, I might add.

I'm using the same recipe as last year except I'm grilling all the meat and veggies instead of cooking them in the pot (I wanted to do something different). The cookoff is mostly for bragin' rights among friends and since I spent the last year braggin', I don't care too much about winning - what the heck am I saying, two in a row would be awesome!!.

Anyway, to my needed advice. My recipe calls for 2 lbs ground beef and 2 lbs chuck roast. When done in the pot the chuck is cubed, lightly dusted with seasoned flour and then browned in veg oil. The browning this year will be achieved from the sear over charcoal. I keep going back and forth whether to just season the chuck roast and slap it on, sear it and then cube it and add it to the stew...or to cut the chuck down into smaller "steaks", season, sear, cube, add...

Will I lose a lot of juice if I cube the whole roast after searing? Will the char flavor be overwhelming if I cut it down into steaks before searing?

What do you guys/gals think? What would you do?

<Princess Leia voice> Help me TVWBB, your my only hope... </Princess Leia voice>
 
Humm Don..the right and THE only way to do it would be...well who am i to give the chili winner an advice. But i think grill it whole and cube up. The element of all grilled(veg/meat) will add so mutch to the game that the loss of juice to add more seared flavour is not needed.

What ever you do tell us how you scored and how you made it! fingers crossed *not like you gonna need it*
icon_wink.gif
 
What a coincidence, I just made a big batch of chili yesterday. I used Tri-Tip roasts. I seasoned and grilled them. I grilled them over medium high heat so they were basically raw inside with a nice char crust outside. I then cubed and put directly into stew pot.

This is the first time I tried grilling the meat and it was great. This is how I'm going to do it from now on. Give it a try.
 
I flash grill chucks all the time to make pot roast's in the pressure cooker and the flavor from a quick grill is adequate. I think to cut your meat into smaller pieces would be overkill in the flavor of it all.
 
I usually use leftover brisket or tri tip for my chili. I think the smoke flavor makes the chili more interesting. In your situation, I'd smoke the roast indirect until it was fully cooked and then cut it up into cubes and add it to the chili.

Bill
 
Another coincidence. Putting on a 15# brisket tonight to be used tomorrow in a chili cook-off. Also just a braggin' rights contest against seven other entries.
 
I'm a day late on this post but when I make chili I put everything in the slow cooker uncooked but I use 80/20, I cut the casing off sweet sausage and chop that up, three kinds of beans, small can of tomato paste, small can of sauce and a small amount of my home made hot pepper sauce which contains some jalapenos, habaneros, cayenne, and some other peppers. I use a good blend of about 6 different peppers (from hot to sweet/hint of hot) so it's a good hot flavor not just over the top pointless heat. I have the hot sauce on the side so you can add as you please. We no longer have chili cook offs I'm happy to say
icon_biggrin.gif
 
Last time I made chili I smoked brisket, lamb, and italian sausage. I cut up all of my fresh peppers, onions, and garlic and put them in a pan under the meat to catch the drippings. It turned out awesome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top