Here is my recipe that took first place at the Feb. Chili Cookoff. It's fairly complicated and expensive so I only make it once or twice a year. One batch has never been the same as I add things while cooking to taste. It's easiest to add all ingredients to a crock pot and cook until desired texture.
Ingredients:
2-4 Tablespoons Amazing Ribs Chili Powder from scratch:
http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/rubs_pastes_marinades_and_brines/chil...
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1 - 2 Packets of Sazon Goya to taste
1 large white onion chopped
2 garlic cloves diced
1/2 - 1 can stewed tomatoes
0.5lb - 1lb uncooked pork sausage
3-5 slices thick cut bacon smoked
2-4lbs Tri-tip smoked
1-3lbs Pulled pork
1 can beef broth
3 pints homebrewed Baltic Porter
1 can El Plato brand Mexican tomato sauce (yellow can)
1 chipotle pepper canned in adobo sauce chopped
Willow Ranch BBQ Sauce
Jim Beam BBQ Sauce
1/2 bag of tortilla chips
Notes:
The Meat:
First I started by making the pulled pork myself by smoking a pork shoulder for 4 hours and cooking a total of 18 hours using a homemade rub. Then Ethen Adams brought over super thick cut bacon and smoked that for 1.5 hours with a homemade rub for himself but left me some, I cut that up into small squares. I then took a Rancher's Reserve tri-tip and smoked it for 2 hours on really low heat so it wouldn't cook all the way through, no seasoning, I cut it up into small squares. The pork sausage was seared in a pan along with the bacon to get some of the fat into the pan. I do all of this over the course or a few weeks to a few months.
The veggies:
Cook the chopped onions in the leftover fat from the sausage and bacon
Stewed Tomatoes - normally I make this without any tomatoes but the El Plato tomato sauce alone can be too spicy for some
The Beer:
Brew a porter or stout. Actually the batch I made last year I used Firestone Walker's Parabola but the alcohol content was a little high, better to use a lower alcohol porter/stout. This year I poured in 1/3 bottle Bourbon County Bourbon Stout.
BBQ Sauce:
Willow Ranch is a restaurant near my family's farm and they make a killer BBQ sauce that's a little on the sweeter side. Jim Beam BBQ sauce is a lot more smokey. I usually add about 1/3 sweet and 2/3 smokey BBQ sauce. About 2/3 through the cooking time start out light and add the sauce throughout the rest of cooking process to balance out the flavor to your liking.
Chips:
I use tortilla ships to thicken up the chili which allows me to add more beer and/or beef broth at the beginning and hit the desired thickness when all of the ingredients have a good flavor.
Good Luck!
