In honor of our anniversary of moving to Texas, I present to you my award-winning Texas Chili recipe. We moved to Austin in June of 2017 with a team of around sixtyish adults (and our fortyish children) to start a church. Joshua Church is a lot like Blue Sky Church, making Austin feel a lot like Seattle if you keep your eyes closed and never leave the air conditioning.

Austin has been very good to us: we are at home here.

This recipe was concocted for a church chili cook-off competition. I designed the recipe after a native Texan informed me that Texas chili does NOT have beans in it. I’d never made chili without beans before, so I knew it would need a lot of meat to compensate (and also to make it Texan). It is a little sweet, a little smoky, flavorful but not spicy. Also it won by a pretty big margin.

Texas Chili

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground beef

1 lb cubed stew meat, cut into half inch cubes

Chili powder

Smoked paprika

Brown sugar

1.5 smallish onions, finely chopped

Clove of garlic, minced

2 largish jalapenos, de-seeded (or not if you want extra kick) and very finely chopped

~teaspoon of liquid smoke

~tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

28 oz of tomato sauce

1/2 cup of chicken broth

Method

Brown the pork in a large pot with a little olive oil.

Generously sprinkle with chili powder (probably about a tablespoon), paprika (probably about a teaspoon), brown sugar (a teaspoon), and salt (to taste).

Remove from the pot and add some olive oil, and add the cubed meat, repeat with the seasonings.

Remove from the pot and chill the cubed meat.

Add a little more oil and add the ground beef, add all the seasonings same as the last meats, but this time also add the liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce.

Remove the ground beef and add a little more oil and the onions and jalapeno.

Saute until soft.

Add garlic and saute for another minute.

Dump in the tomato sauce.

Add the ground meats.

Add more chili powder and salt to taste.

Add broth to desired consistency–I used a half cup because I wanted it to be very thick.

Simmer for an hour or two.

Add cubed meat about fifteen minutes before serving. (I wanted the cubed steak to not be overcooked.)