Recipe: Black-Eyed Pea Chipotle Chili
I enjoy making this on a weekend morning, as it fills the air with the sweet, smokey smell of chipotle. Takes about an hour of preparation and an hour of simmering. Start by 10 a.m. on Sunday for a delicious lunch and a week’s worth of leftovers.
4 lb extra lean ground beef or buffalo
3 T mild red chili powder
3 T ground cumin
1 t ground cloves
3 cans black-eyed peas, drained
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 medium carrot, diced small
1 large red onion, diced
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T Kahlúa liquor
1 t liquid hickory smoke
salt (preferably sea or rock salt)
3 t chipotle powder (don’t buy any chipotle labeled “hot”)
Fry the extra lean ground beef in a giant frying pan, adding the red chili, cumin, and cloves as it cooks and chopping up the beef plenty with your spatula so that the chunks aren’t big.
While the beef is cooking, drain the fluid from the black-eyed peas and dump them into a large stewing or stock pot. Add canned tomatoes and tomato sauce on top, as well as the garlic, red onion, bell pepper, and carrots. Toss in the Kahlúa and liquid smoke. Cook on a medium setting.
Make sure the beef doesn’t overcook. Remove it from the heat when it’s still medium rare (slightly pink in places) since it will be cooking more later. Then dump it in the pot with the other ingredients, and stir thoroughly.
Rince out the pan you used for the beef, and use it to sautee the diced onions in olive oil until the onions become translucent. Then dump the onions in your soup and stir. Add salt, and more salt, until the flavor of the beef and chili gets nice and full. (This may require several tablespoons, but it’s okay — this is a BIG pot of chili.)
Finally, add the chipotle powder, one teaspoon at a time. After each teaspoon, stir the pot thoroughly and taste the sauce. Chipotle powder can be quite hot, and you don’t want to ruin your chili by making it too hot to enjoy the flavors.
Once the ingredients start to boil, stir again, cover the pot and lower the heat to the lowest setting on your stove. Simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally if only to enjoy the smell of the chipotle.
Serve in large bowls with a dollop of lime guacamole on top.
