Chilli (Up North) Con Carne
This serves 4 with some left overs to have in a Yorkshire, on a jacket or with some tortillas the next day. It takes about 15mins to prepare and then 3 hours too cook but the longer you leave it the better it gets.
Ingredients:
- 250g of kidney beans or mixed mexican beans or beans of your choice (cooked and drained)
- 500g of minced beef (i say ish as the pack i bought was something like 454g…..don’t know why morrisons don’t do 500g)
- 2 beef stock cubes
- 2 red onions (can use white ones if you’re reddist)
- 2 carrots
- 1 Green Pepper
- 1 red pepper
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 4 chillis of your choice – i used a mix of dried red chillis, frozen carribean red hot and some fresh green thai hot)
- 2 x 400g tins of tomato’s
- 1 small tin of sweetcorn
- 2 cubes of dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon ish of tomato puree
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 bayleaves
- cinnamon (to taste)
- 3 teaspoons of paprika
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- large handful of chopped parsley
- tabasco
- olive oil
then tortillas, grated cheese, rice, soured cream, guacamole and tabasco to serve with (the tabasco can be added to the dish when cooking but as em doesn’t like it too hot i add it to mine before serving)
you can also add a splash of dark beer or tequila when cooking the beef to add a little extra flavour
Method
- chop the onions,carrots and peppers up and set aside. (you can grate the carrots and onions if you want)
- heat a large pan or casserole dish on the stove and add some olive oil, crumble in the stock cubes in, when they start to dissolve add your mince and cook for a few mins until browned.
- remove the meat with a slotted spoon and then cook the onions and peppers in the remaining juices and oil for 5-6 mins until everything is soft.
- crush and add the garlic, add the chillis and the sweetcorn and cook for a couple more mins  return the meat to the pan
- then add the tomatoes,tomato puree, paprika, beans, cumin, salt, pepper, honey and bay leaves.
- cover and simmer for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Either that or put it in a slow cooker and cook for 8 hours
- then just before serving, check your seasoning and adjust if necessary, grate the chocolate into it and stir followed by adding in the chopped parsley and adjust with tabasco if needed.
- serve with choice of accompaniment and a cold beer…enjoy!!
A Nice hearty chilli for those cold winter days



January 18th, 2009 at 17:07
Will try this one next Saturday. I thought I’d invented the ‘cinnamon in chilli’ thing till I realised every other bugger who knows anything about chilli had been doing it for ages!!!
Honey sounds interesting…
I’ll let you know how I get on. I’ll buy in some Williams Bros Black Beer especially.
Cheers
PaulFS
January 18th, 2009 at 17:24
Nice one, im glad you found it useful, i reckon it will go a treat with the black beer….you have got me thinking now ;o)
January 24th, 2009 at 20:41
Made your chilli this afternoon as promised – gorgeous! The only nasty bit was waiting 3 hrs! 3 of us had it with just tortilla wraps and there’s enough left over for lunch tomorrow. Or there will be if I don’t keep nipping into the kitchen for another spoonful…
Had a Williams Bros Black with it – very smokey – went really well. I’d definitely recommend it. (You probably already know this but the Williams Bros do a Heather Ale called Fraoch, they were on Oz and James this week, that’s a nice brew too).
I used 4 red bird eye chilli’s without the seeds and that was just right for me.
Anyway – great recipe and well worth the effort.
Sláinte!!!
PaulFS
October 6th, 2009 at 18:52
Saw an image for this on twitter and got inspired!
Glad we didnt have a takeaway tonight and cooked this instead. 4 hours in the making and totally worth it
Tasted beautiful with loads of Garlic! Yumm!
Loved the added touches of Honey and Chocolate… Never put this in a spicy dish (maybe even any dish) before, and it totally transformed the taste.
The next one I cook will have a few experiments… Thinking of trying the Espresso, and may add Worcester Sauce, lemon juice and a full bodied red wine to draw out the taste
)
October 7th, 2009 at 08:51
Glad you enjoyed it, i love the idea of using wine and lemon juice, possibly even some beer, the chilli beer i had the other week might work quite nicely, will have to try that one!