Chili and Homemade Chili Powder

Chili is a fall favorite. And though I like it, I have to admit, it’s hasn’t always been my favorite. I liked it well enough, but could never find just the right combination of flavor to make it crave-able. Over the years I have had my recipe evolve, but for a long time it was good, just not great.

I recently bought an 8 quart instant pot, because among other things, I wanted an easier way to cook beans, that wouldn’t take as long and dirty as many dishes. I’ve really enjoyed working with it, and I’m excited to share some of the things I have played with while using this tool.

In a previous post, documenting my Black beans and rice, I experimented with adding the excess liquid from my pico de gallo into the beans as I cooked them. It had fantastic results. In my chili, I took that idea and ran with it. I also used some of the pepper powder that we made from our abundance of peppers we grew this year. I’ll include that recipe as well.

The chili recipe is as follows

Chili

1 c dry Black beans
1 c dry navy beans
1 2/3 c dry light red kidney beans
1 1/3 c dry pinto beans
All beans rinsed, sorted, and soaked overnight. Quick soak can also be used by boiling rinsed and sorted beans for 10 minutes, then leaving them to sit for one hour. Soaking water should be discarded, and beans again rinsed thoroughly.

Soaked beans
2 T chili powder
2 T smoked chili powder (home developed spice)
1 t hot chili powder (home developed spice)
1/2 t powdered cyan pepper
1 t turmeric
1 t cumin
46 fluid oz tomato juice
2-3 cups water



These ingredients are to be combined in the instant pot, then cooked on the bean setting for 20 minutes pressure. Use a quick release method, by opening the steam vent until pressure drops.

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion diced
1 medium green pepper diced
1 T chili powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground black pepper



As the beans are pressure cooking, cook ground beef with onion, peppers, and seasonings. Once pressure is released add it to the pot, as well as:

1 quart diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1T salt

It can all be sautéed together to combine the flavors until combined and heated through. I enjoyed adding a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh green onions and grated cheese, as they greatly compliment the flavor.


The first of the homemade spices, the smoked chili powder, I can’t recall the actual recipe. We basically took all the peppers we had and smoked them on our BBQ grill. We then removed the stems and seeds, dehydrated them, and ground them into a powder. The smoky flavor is a great addition to the chili!

The hot chili powder recipe is as follows.

Homemade Chili powder:

30 banana peppers
15 jalapeños
Green onions. (We did around 20 from our garden)
4 garlic heads
2 tablespoons sea salt

Slice the peppers in half and lay them out (seed side up) on dehydrator trays. Clean the green onions and lay them whole on dehydrator trays. Crush the cloves from the four heads of garlic with the side of a kitchen knife (this also allows you to pull the garlic paper off easily). Put the crushed garlic cloves on dehydrator trays. Dehydrate all of them until they are done (took us about two and a half days with our dehydrator). Temperature should be at around 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it is done, turn off the dehydrator and let them sit until they have cooled.

Once they are dehydrated and cooled, put them in a bullet blender (or off brand of a similar type). Blend a bit at a time until you can fit everything in. Add the sea salt. Then blend in bursts and pull it off to shake it up in between. Continue this until it is all a powder.

Put in ziplock bags (we double bag) or an airtight container. Label and then you can store or use it.

If you want it a little less spicy, simply remove the seeds from the peppers. Enjoy!