Tom’s 10-Alarm Chili

Name: Tom’s 10-Alarm Chili
Yield: Serves 10
Ingredients: 4 red onions, finely chopped; grated Cheddar cheese, soured cream, crushed crackers, chopped red onion, fresh coriander leaves and tortillas or boiled white rice, to serve; 3.6 kg/8 lb shin of beef, chopped into about 10 big chunks; 2–4 tablespoons groundnut oil; 6 dried ancho chillies, soaked in water for 30 minutes, then finely chopped; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon hot chilli powder; 3 tablespoons cumin seeds, roasted in a hot dry pan until the oils are released, then ground to a fine powder; 2 big pinches of Mexican oregano (from www.coolchile.co.uk, or use European oregano if you must); 4 habanero chillies, finely chopped; 5 clove garlic, finely chopped; 6 dried chipotle chillies, soaked in water for 30 minutes, then finely chopped; 1 litre/1¾ pints fresh beef stock (a decent cube will do); Worcestershire sauce; 4 tablespoons tomato purée

Preparation info

Serves
10

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

About

Chili. One word, one million different ways with meat and spice. Forget those insipid, second-rate British versions, which are little more than mince with a sombrero and delusions of greatness. In southwestern USA, chili (note the single ‘l’) is less dish and more cult, art and religion all rolled into one. The perfect ‘bowl of red’, as it’s affectionately known, is a very serious subject, with endless books devoted to its creation, and cook-offs raging non-stop. In Texas, it’s a capital of