| Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here. Chili for chilly nights In its simplest incarnations, chili is a stew of meat and spices, especially, as its name suggests, some form of chile pepper. But there are a great many ways to make chili, a uniquely American dish — by which I mean it has roots in both the North and South American continents — and links to Spain. The Aztecs were chile experts — "chile" comes from the Nahuatl word, chīlli, translated into English as "hot pepper" — having mastery over perhaps hundreds of varieties of the plant and its fruit, they used chiles fresh, dried and smoked as medicine and in food. Indigenous cooks stewed venison and other wild game meats in chiles for centuries. When the Spanish brought domesticated cattle across the Atlantic beginning in the 1400s, it was only a matter of time before the Spaniards' taste for beef met the bewitching sensations and flavors of chile peppers. In "The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos," historian Robb Walsh traces the first mention of a chile-seasoned stew back to the 1500s, in the writings of Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan friar. Written recipes for meat-and-chile-based stews are found in records from the 1800s in what is now Nuevo León, Mexico. It would take a group of passionate Mexican and Tejana women, the Chili Queens of San Antonio, to popularize Texas-style chili beginning in the late 1800s. The dish they made, a thick stew of hunks of beef braised in a chile-based sauce, was perhaps the first variation on what Texans call their "bowl of red." Sans tomatoes and beans, it was similar to chili con carne — and exactly the kind of hearty, warming fare laborers, cowboys and travelers wanted. It didn't take long for chili con carne to spread across the plodding but persistently expanding United States — especially west into California, and north into the Plains and Midwest. In a resolution adopted on May 11, 1977, the Texas Legislature, seeking ownership over a dish it had not invented, declared chili the "State Dish of Texas." The law took aim at chili's many imitators: "WHEREAS, President Lyndon B. Johnson commented that 'chili concocted outside of Texas is a weak, apologetic imitation of the real thing,' and Will Rogers described Texas chili as 'the bowl of blessedness.'" The resolution further states that "the only real 'bowl of red' is that prepared by Texans." Entirely ignoring this, in 1993, the people of Illinois declared Springfield "The Chilli Capital of the World." This recipe, from cooking instructor Linda Carucci, is a lot like a Springfield-style chili, with ground beef, canned tomatoes, ground chiles and beans. It's hearty but takes under an hour to prepare.  | Today's recipe |  Photos by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post; food styling by Nicola Davis for The Washington Post | Weeknight Chili - The onion, carrot and celery are a nice flavorful base >> but you could skip any one of the three to save time.
- Dislike heat? >> Reduce the amount of chili powder and cut the cayenne, too.
- Don't eat meat? >> Omit the beef. Substitute with additional beans or seasoned, crumbled and pan-fried tofu or tempeh.
- Not into beans? >> Skip them.
For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe in our Recipe Finder. Servings: 4 to 6
Active time: 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour Ingredients - 2 tablespoons mild extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 6 ounces)
- 1 large carrot, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 stalk celery, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 3 teaspoons mild chili powder, plus more to taste if desired
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more to taste if desired
- 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- 1 1/4 pounds ground beef (80 percent lean)
- 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
- 1 can (15 ounces) red kidney beans, with liquid
- 1 cup water
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 4 to 6 slices day-old crusty Italian or French bread, for serving (optional)
Steps1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Resist the urge to stir frequently, so the vegetables have time to caramelize a bit. 2. Add 3 teaspoons of the chili powder, the salt, oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of the cayenne pepper and the garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Push the vegetables to the outside edges of the pot, increase the heat to medium-high, and place the ground beef in the center. Use the edge of a wooden spatula or spoon to break the meat into roughly 3/4-inch chunks. Sear the beef until it begins to brown on the bottom; don't stir it until the beef sears and you see steam rising. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the meat is no longer pink. 3. Add the tomato sauce and the beans and their liquid. Fill the tomato sauce can with 1 cup water and add it to the pot along with the bay leaf. Bring the chili to a rolling boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low. Taste; add another 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper for a spicier chili or 1 teaspoon chili powder for a deeper flavor. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the largest pieces of carrot are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. 4. If serving over bread, tear 1 slice of bread into 3/4-inch pieces and place in the bottom of each wide, shallow soup bowl. Ladle the chili on top; serve hot. Adapted from a recipe by California cooking teacher Linda Carucci. Tested by Bonnie S. Benwick. Nutrition information per serving (based on 6): Calories: 370; Total Fat: 24 g; Saturated Fat: 8 g; Cholesterol: 66 mg; Sodium: 712 mg; Carbohydrates: 18 g; Dietary Fiber: 6 g; Sugars: 5 g; Protein: 21 g.  | Dessert | 🎧 "Climate Cuisine" from Whetstone Radio Collective.
📺 "Ballet Rotoscope."
📖 "Connecting With West Africa's Plant-Based Past" by Yewande Komolafe in the New York Times.
👀 Such a cozy sweatshirt.
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