It was time to make smoked chili for a church event. I decided to smoke the jalapenos and the ground chuck. I wanted a strong smoke flavor so I used mesquite. I had a 4 1/2 pound package of beef and I used a cast iron pan that would barely fit on the Weber. I was not concerned with the temp of the smoke, I just wanted to get the meat browned. I placed the jalapenos on the bottom shelf and the meat on the top and left the vents wide open to get a high temp.
The jalapenos only took about 45 minutes to finish
The meat took some time to complete, close to 2 1/2 hours and plenty of periodic stirring and draining in the process. It reached the desired results, it had a beautiful red color and plenty of smoked flavor.
It was then added to the chili, which I use tomato juice as a base, add diced onions, the jalapenos that were diced, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. As with most cooking, I never measure anything out, I add, stir, taste, add stir, taste. If you make this yourself, take the heat as far as you want to — my own preference is a good biting heat, but not so much that it overpowers the rest of the chili.
The base is made using 3 cans of tomato juice, with the onions and seasoning and simmered (about 2 hours). The meat was added and then simmered for 30 minutes. I then added 5 cans of dark red kidney beans and simmered for another 30 minutes to completion.
How I Mix It Up
The base never really changes — tomato juice, diced onion, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and the jalapeños. What changes is the meat. Sometimes it’s just browned ground beef, no smoke at all.
Sometimes it’s smoked ground beef, like the batch in this post. And sometimes I’ll use chopped smoked brisket instead
— if you’ve got leftover brisket sitting around, it makes a great chili. Check out The Complete Brisket Guide if you want to see how I smoke it in the first place.
One more thing that’s changed since this 2016 batch: that one was made for a church event, so it was fully beaned to stretch it for a crowd. Day to day, it’s just the three of us — myself, my wife, and our adult daughter — and my daughter and I don’t care for beans. So these days I make the base and add the meat, then pull about a third of it out into a separate container before the beans go in. My wife gets the beans, we don’t.
It was then served with additional diced onions, my own smoked white cheddar, and Frito’s Scoops — still my favorite way to eat it. In my opinion this was the best chili I have ever made, and I would definitely do this again
I’ve been making chili for about four decades now, but I’ve only been cold-smoking cheese for about the last decade. It didn’t take long to figure out the two belonged together — early on in that smoked cheese journey, topping chili with it turned out to be a match made in heaven, and I haven’t stopped since. Smoked white cheddar is my go-to, and Fritos are non-negotiable. If you want to see how I smoke the cheese itself, check out The Complete Guide to Cold-Smoking Cheese.
