Quick Chunky Beef Chili

I am not one of those long-simmering-labor-of-love cookers. Not only does long cooking foods raise the histamine levels in the food, but I just have better things to do with my time than cooking. Honestly I don’t love cooking I just like eating my food. If I thought taking a lot of extra time to cook something was going to turn out so much better I could consider it sometimes for a special occasion, or just go out to eat where some else spent their time on it. I know how to make a really good chili and make it really quick.

I prefer to make my chili with already cooked meats. This batch of chili I used some leftover barbecue ribs, leftover ribeye steak and the leftover meat from a beef knuckle I used to make a beef bone broth. If you don’t have leftover meat you can barbecue up some hamburgers, and then chop them up for this chili, or just wing it with a pound of sirloin. Whatever meat you are going to use, use about two-cups worth and set aside.

Next chop up a small sweet onion, about a cup worth. Add a tablespoon or two of beef tallow to your soup pot and get it hot over medium-high heat then add in the meat. Let that cook for a couple of minutes and then add it the onions and season with salt.

Next add in two cups of bone broth, I used chicken for this, but I use lamb or beef other times. Add in two cups of salsa, hot if you like your chili hot or mild if you like it less spicy. Add in one tablespoon of ground cumin, a half teaspoon of garlic powder, two tablespoons of masa flour, maybe even three if you used a watery salsa. My salsa was a thick blended chunky one so two tablespoons is all I used. I added in a half teaspoon of smoked salt and a teaspoon of regular salt. You can use a little dash of liquid smoke if you don’t have smoked salt or neither if you are using leftover barbecued meats.

Finally add in an ounce or two of dark chocolate. The bitterness of the chocolate balances the tanginess of the salsa and gives a deeper flavor to the chili that black beans would add. Cook the chili until it is thickened. This all comes together for me in under a half hour.

“If a person eats a large serving of meat, it’s probably helpful to have 5 or 10 grams of gelatin at approximately the same time, so that the amino acids enter the blood stream in balance.” -Ray Peat