sirloin and bean chili with corn bread and smoked cheddar

Upon returning to a normally drought and heat stricken central Texas I was hit in the face by 50 degree wind gusts. CHILI TIME!!!  

even though everyone knows that i'm always ecstatic about what i call "chili weather", i've never actually made chili before. and recipe schmecipe. so this evening was a great american staple adventure.

staple like quintessential dish, not like i went on an adventure for office supplies. (although, i do love supplies so if you know of any nifty useless supply websites, get at me)

There was a lot that went into this chili, not in the actual cooking but in terms of getting to the chili action. the grocery store trip was exhausting. I stood in front of the $12 sea salts for 10 minutes until I realized I do not have $12 to spend on salt (for the record: i went with slice and bake cookies, instead of a posh sea salt confection) Then, because I wanted to use really good cheese to garnish my chili, I stood in front of the "british isles/cheddar" section smelling every single cheese at least three times over.

there is a lot that I wanted for this chili. A lot that couldn't happen, sadly. I wanted to use dried rather than canned beans, but since I didn't know I would be making chili until an hour before dinner, I couldn't use dried beans. Also, I originally intended to make a turkey white bean chili, but there was no ground turkey at the store and so I took that as a friendly nudge in the direction of big meat, ground sirloin, to be precise. 

once the glorious grocery store madness ended, it was chili improv time:

1/2 T butter, 1/2 T olive oil

1-3 lbs ground sirloin 

1 12 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 12 oz can fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles

1-3 cups chicken stock

1 can black beans, no salt added; drained and rinsed

1 can kidney beans, no salt added; drained and rinsed

1/2 white or yellow onion, diced

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, diced

approx 1 T cumin (or to taste)

approx 1/2 T chile powder (or to taste)

approx 1 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

1 T dried oregano

approx 2 T salt (or to taste)

avocado slices for garnish

sharp yellow cheddar and/or smoked cheddar for garnish (and for melty cheesey gooodness)

a slice of cornbread or a pepperjack corn muffin if you are me and you are lucky enough to come across that in the store!!!!!! ( i wanted to make my own cornbread, i really did, but as i mentioned earlier, grocery stores are distracting and exciting for me and i don't always meet all my goals)

How It Alllll Goessss Down:

1. melt the olive oil and butter together in a heavy soup pot. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Saute until translucent but not brown.

2. Add the spices and stir to combine. and to make great aromas happen

3. Add the sirloin and cook over medium heat until fully brown.

4. Pour in both cans of tomatoes, crushing and mixing with a wooden spoon. Add enough chicken stock to just cover the meat and loosen up the chili, but not enough to make it brothy. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for at least 20 minutes (45 minutes or an hour will only make it taste better).

 5. After simmering for as long as your impatient taste buds can handle, add the beans, stir and taste. Adjust the seasonings and spices as necessary!

Put a slice of cornbread or a corn bread muffin into a bowl. Ladle the chili on top, garnish with both shredded (or oddly minced if you don't have a grater like me) smoked cheddar and sharp aged yellow cheddar, avocado slices and sliced scallions. 

This is what it looked like after I mushed around all the garnishes and the corn muffin :) it was a deliciously sweet, corny, meaty, spicy, smokey, cheesy bucket of YUM. except it was a bowl, i WISH it had been a bucket.

it's officially been 2 days since i've made this chili and i wanted to add that i've eaten it for breakfast yesterday and today. it's delicious, plentiful and only gets better as it sits :) 

how to snag a date.

This is a food blog, so why am I beginning by offering dating advice? Well. This mac and cheese is guaranteed to get you a date with whomever you make it for-after all, nothing says true love like a creamy, spicy, cheesy casserole.

a side note: I plan to take step by step pictures for the rest of my recipes but when I made this last night I didn't plan to start keeping a blog so all we have is a picture of the final product in my bowl. Don't panic though, its pretty hard to make cheese, butter, pasta and buffalo sauce taste bad.

What You'll Need:
1 lb of medium size pasta shells (medium is important, the small ones don't soak up enough of the saucy cheesy goodness)
2 1/2 cups of half and half
4 cups medium grated sharp cheddar (don't get reduced fat, this isn't the time to count your calories, trust me)
2 cups of medium grated jack cheese or mozzarella 
3 cups of shredded chicken (rotisserie, breasts, left over thighs-whatever you have on hand or is cheapest at the store is fine!)
1 T of flour
12 T or 1.5 sticks of unsalted butter
as much buffalo wing sauce as you desire, i use about 1/3-1/2 of a cup total 
1/3 cup sour cream (okay, here you can actually use the light version if you really care that much. and if you do decide to use light sour cream then congratulations, instead of making a 1,000,000 calorie dish you're now making a 999,980 calorie dish. Was that right? I can't do math which is why I cook.) oh also, if you don't have sour cream you can use 1/4 a cup of cream cheese instead.
1/2 of a small yellow or white onion, diced
2-4 garlic cloves, minced, depending on your relationship with garlic use more or less. i use 5-its a serious relationship.
1 cup of panko bread crumbs, you can use regular breadcrumbs but, true fact, panko are the breadcrumbs of Mt Olympus.

The Run Down:
preheat the oven to 350, oh and make sure you have some kind of casserole dish or cake pan that will work. There have been times that I've sent myself into a deep depression after making the whole recipe only to realize all i have in the house are cookie sheets. (for the record, I found a way-stainless steel bowls anyone?)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a handful of salt (yes, a handful-whenever you're making pasta).
Add the shells, stir once right away and then every couple minutes give it a stir until its just short of al dente, about 7-8 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, add 2 T of butter to a saute pan over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, add the garlic and chicken, stir to incorporate and let them get to know each other for about a minute or two before adding some buffalo sauce magic. (about 1/4 of a cup...or more if you're feelin spicy). Let those flavors hang out for a few until thickened slightly and then take the pan off the heat and set to the side.

Your pasta is probably ready to be drained and you can let it sit in the collander for this next part, or you can choose to make the pasta once all of these steps are finished-whichever you prefer.

Melt 1 T of butter in a sauce pan (with talllll sides), once melted add the flour and mix with a whisk or spoon until there are no lumps in the roux mixture (culinary talk for flour+butter). Whisk in the half and half and let thicken slightly, about four minutes before adding about 1/4 of a cup more buffalo sauce. Whisk in 3 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese and all of the jack cheese slowly so that no clumps form. Whisk frequently until all of the cheese has melted--you'll know when it looks right because you will think, "wow this looks like cheese sauce heaven". At this point you can add in the sour cream. Pour in the pasta and mix it all up!

Spray you're baking dish with some non stick spray and pour in half of the mac and cheese. Cover the top of this layer with the chicken and buffalo sauce mixture and then top with the second half of the mac and cheese.
Melt about 2 T of butter in the microwave, once melted combine the butter and the panko and cover the entire top of the dish. Then, if you like to party, add the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese on top.
Bake for 20-40 minutes (I bake it as long as I can stand to wait before eating it) and then devour.