Easy Chili: Taste like Wendy's but better!

Is chili easy to make? Well if you asked me a year ago I would of said, NO! I have tried through the years to make a chili comparable to at least a restaurant quality, or maybe Wendy's Chili. I have failed with various recipes in the past...I don't know what I did wrong and even though My Mr.Tasteful said it tasted "fine" that was not good enough!

One day I was watching Triple D or better known on Food Network as  Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives. One of the restaurants he was cooking with where known for their Chili and his "secret" was Chili Sauce. Okay, it was like one of those "duh" moments, "why have I never used this"? Any recipe I used never called for it, or did it? I don't know! Chili Sauce gives a sweetness to the chili and it reminds me more of Wendy's chili if I was to compare the flavor to something you may be familiar with. Its super simple! I do recommend you cook this for at least 2 hours on the stove top, you could cook it for less however I can not guarantee what it will taste like. I would say no need to cook this recipe longer then 4 hours on the stove top. I prefer the 4 hour mark, that's how long I cook my chili for. Of course you could cook this in a crock-pot on low for 8 hours too.

Chili Sauce: I have tried store brands and I admit I enjoy Heinz the most however it's not necessary to buy that brand. I bought mine from Walmart. I will say this, 1 bottle does make the chili very sweet, so if you want less of a sweetness only use 1/2 bottle, then you can add more later if you want it sweeter.

Tomato Sauce: I make my own tomato sauce. I buy a 6lb can of whole canned tomatoes at Costco for under $3.00. I put in a pot then take my hand blender and puree to the texture I like. I put in 6 cloves of garlic and let sauce come to boil then turn down to a low simmer and cook anywhere from 4 to 6 hrs. I do not salt it or add anything else. This is just my base and I use it for a recipe that calls for a can of tomato sauce, I use 1 & 1/2 cups of my tomato sauce.The reason I do this is because one its very cost effect and I save lots of money! But I also learned that when you buy whole canned tomatoes those are less processed so the flavor of the tomatoes will taste not as metal like. You don't need to do this! Just buy any canned tomato sauce you like!

Bacon: This is NOT a necessary ingredient to use. I have made my chili without it, or if have leftover bacon fat use it, . BUT if you have it, please use the bacon! I have tried thick cut Pepper Bacon or chipotle bacon available and I liked both very much!

Beef: I used what I had on hand, I had bought some beef that was being sold door to door and the ground beef was in patties. I prefer to use a less fatty ground beef, I usually only buy 85/15 fat or 90/10 fat. I am not a fan of 80/20 because it is so oily. I rather use that grade for hamburgers not for Chili, Spaghetti or Soups. You can also use ground chicken or turkey in place of ground beef.

Beans: I keep it simple when it comes to beans. I just use Pinto & Red Kidney. I have used black beans and even add frozen corn (I know not a bean). If you do not like Red Kidney beans you can add a replacement bean or a extra can of pinto.

Spicy: I love spice! But I have My Little Cupcake to think about, and even though she actually likes spicy food I try to keep the heat low for her. Personally I love to dice up some fresh jalapeno pepper and let that add the heat. You can also use cayenne powder or red pepper flakes. Just add it to your taste, add to the onion/peppers stage. Maybe start with 1/4 tSp if you are not sure of the heat measurement that works for you. Then add another 1/4 tSp at a time until you get the heat index you like.

Steak Seasoning: I had the Chicago Style, I dont even know where I got it (think My Mr.Tasteful bought it at a local store). Just make sure when you buy a steak seasoning find one that has fennel seeds in it.... Because this has salt in mixture I recommend not adding any additional salt to recipe until after it has finished cooking for at least an hour. Taste it then and see if it needs salt, mine did not and I assume it was combined with the fact I also had bacon which is salty too.

Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce: Yes brand matters! I have tried store brands and nothing compares to this brand, you can find it almost anywhere, I bought mine at Walmart. 

4 strips of bacon chopped or cut up into pieces
Dash of Olive Oil
1 medium onion diced small (doesn't matter what type of onion, just not red)
3 cloves of garlic diced (no not bulbs the cloves that make a bulb)
2 celery stick diced small
1 green pepper diced small (just split your green pepper in half)
1 tBs of Steak Seasoning (optional)
1 tSp Smoked Paprika (yes smoked, very important!)
2 tSp Cumin Powder
2 tSp Chili Powder
1/2 tSp Onion powder
1/2 tSp Garlic Powder
2 tSp Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce  
1 bottle of Chili Sauce (I like Heinz)
4 cups of tomato sauce
2 cans (14oz each) of Pinto Beans
2 cans (14oz each) of Red Kidney Beans
2lb of ground beef or ground chuck (try and do 85/15 or 90/10 fat)
1 or 2 cans of water (or 1 & 1/2 cups of water).
Salt & Pepper for tasting.

My own tomato sauce made from whole canned tomatoes

 

Everything you will need (seasoning not shown) 

 Dice up your onion, Celery, Green Pepper & Garlic Cloves

 Put pot on burner and turn to a medium-high heat (number 7 for electric burners) and add as dash of olive oil. Then add the bacon and let it cook until nice a brown/crispy (about 5 min), stir it after it cooks for 3 min.

 Once bacon is cooked remove bits, you can eat as a snack or save for topping later for your chili.Then add beef and saute, but do not fully cook beef all the way through. Then remove beef and place in a bowl for later.

Turn temp down to a medium heat (about a 4/5 on a electric burner). Then add onion, celery, green peppers and the steak seasoning, let cook for 5 min or until onion seem translucent.

 Then add cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, onion & garlic powder then stir and let cook for 3  min (helps cook out the rawness of dried seasonings).

  Add your Chili Sauce

 Then add the Worcestershire Sauce, cans of  drained and washed beans and the beef

 Then add your tomato sauce  & water. Mixture will get more watery as it cooks longer so if one can of water is enough, wait to add another can after it has cooked for 1 hour, so you can have it thinner or keep it thick.

  Let it come to a slight simmer (take about 5 min or so) cover with lid then turn heat down to low.

 Now you just need to let it cook for at least 2 to 4 hours on low! Stir every 20 mins or so if you remember.....

 Top it with whatever you want! Cheese, green onions, bacon sour cream, hot sauce, toppings are endless....I just did cheese, Sour Cream & lettuce.

Enjoy!!!

Extreme Creamy Stovetop Mac & Cheese in One Pot

I love Mac & Cheese! My Mr.Tasteful is dairy sensitive and one day I decided to use Chicken Stock/broth and just a little milk and I found this made an amazing creamy texture, PLUS you dont feel as heavy. I came across a inspirational post blog for One Pot Stove Top Mac & Cheese here I thought that was a good idea....however I needed to adjust some of the ideas. This is my version!

Here are a couple tips/ideas for some of the ingredients I use.

Chicken Base: When I make whole roasted chicken I reserve the chicken fat/juices that collect at the bottom, I put in a ziplock bag then freeze it. When I want to use a little I run bag under water then just cut off a chunk for use in rice or to add chicken flavor to water. You can buy it at the grocery store where they sell chicken boullion. There are different brands just looks for "chicken base". However you dont even need to do this, you can just use chicken stock!

Mustard: I use brown spicy mustard. You dont need to. You can use 1/2 tSp of mustard powder OR instead of brown mustard just use yellow mustard. I have used dijon mustard , it just gives a unique flavor.

Milk: It doesn't matter what milk you use, just use what you have on hand...you could even just use evaporated milk. Each milk is going to give different results, the only milk that may be different is Skim Milk because of the lack of fat.

Cheese: I always stock Monterrey Jack Cheese because it is a great melting cheese and its cost effect. If you would like a more cheddar flavor, add 1/2 cup of cheddar. If you use all cheddar and can not guarantee the results...I find that cheddar is more oil based and not as creamy in texture, but I do love the flavor.

Pasta: I used elbow pasta, if you use a different type your cooking time may vary and liquid may very.


2 cups of water (OR just use Chicken Stock)
1 tBs of chicken base or your own reserved chicken fat (no need to use if using chicken stock)
1/2 tSp olive oil
1 & 3/4 cup of elbow pasta
1/4 tSp of salt
1/4 tSp of ground thyme
1/2 tSp mustard powder
(I also added a dash of onion powder & garlic powder)
1/2 tSp of butter (if you are not using chicken base use 1 tSp of butter)
1/4 cup of milk
1 & 1/2 cup of Monterrey Jack Cheese

Boil water, then once water reaches a boil TURN DOWN HEAT TO LOW (DO NOT BOIL. U WANT A LOW, LOW SIMMER) then add chicken base (if using water), salt, mustard, thyme, onion & garlic powder, pasta, & olive oil. Stir all together and keep siring (to keep from clumping together) . Put lid on and let pasta cook for 3 min, then stir again, place lid back on for another 3 min. After 6 min has passed take a bite of pasta and see if its at the tenderness you like, I like al-denta which it may be at by 6 min, but usually it takes about 8 min for a soft texture (but not mushy). So if pasta is not to your texture let cook for another 2 min covered. It should be done by now. Remove from heat and add butter and stir all together. Just in-case you are confused, DO NOT DRAIN LIQUID. Phew!!! Now you will add in the milk, put back on the burner (keeping temp at low) and let the mixture heat through for 1 min or so. Then take small hand fulls of cheese and add and stir a together, once cheese has melted, add more cheese. I think I added cheese in 5 stages at a time once all the cheese was added. Once all the cheese is melted you are done!

I had left the Mac & Cheese out (burner turned off) in the pot and after 15 mins it was still very creamy, 30 mins still creamy! By 45 mins it had cooled and was thick. However if you want you can add a dash of water and heat in microwave and its great and creamy again!

Total time was about 10 min. 8 servings.

Enjoy!

Letting pasta simmer on low

 My chicken base I freeze

 This is what the pasta looks like after 3/5 mins of low cooking

 This is what it looks like after 8 mins of cooking, then you add the milk

 mixing in the cheese

 Look how creamy that is

 do you see the string to that cheese?

30 min later and it still looks super creamy sitting on the stove after burner is off

Homemade Bread (whole wheat) by hand. 3 loaves

Back in October of last year I came across a great food blogger Foodie Wife "A feast for the Eyes", she was the first one I ever learned something from. Actually she was my first introduction into food blogging, I had no idea about food bloggers. But she was the first blogger that actually taught me NOT to be afraid of baking! I was super afraid, but always wanted to bake. My first time I made bread from scratch was by taking her tips and instructions from her following recipe's Dinner Rolls in an Hour & Golden Pull Apart Buns and her Honey Whole Wheat Bread. Now when I made her Honey Whole Wheat Bread I used all purpose flour I did not use bread flour. I have found bread flour is a good thing and rightfully so. I found another blogger "i am a Mom not a professional". I am taking her recipe and adapting the recipe to fit my taste, I added some other techniques that she does not have. Personally I like my results of my method. You may not follow mine, I understand it is more time consuming a. I am sure it will still turn out great if you follow her exact way for her bread Awesome Sandwich Bread


My adaptation of
The Recipe

3 cups of warm water (1/2 cup for yeast development)

1/2 tSp white sugar

2 Packages of Dry Active yeast

1/2 cup of honey

3 tBs of White Sugar

3.5 cups of white BREAD flour

2 cups of whole wheat flour (all purpose)

(if you want a stronger whole wheat flavor use 3.5 cups of whole wheat flour, instead of the 1.5 cup of white all purpose flour)

1.5 cups of unbleached white all purpose flour

1 TBS salt

2 TBS of oil


I do not have a stand mixer this is all by hand. I am not sure of the directions for proper kneading times with a stand mixer.

Take 1/2 cup of warm water (temp at 110 degrees) and 1/2 tSp of white sugar and 2 packets of Active Dry Yeast, mix together until yeast & sugar appear dissolved.

 I placed mine in the microwave to store it, not cook it!!! Let sit for 10 mins. After 10 min yeast should have foamed up double its size.

 If this does not happen there are a couple reasons why not. 1 it could be old yeast, or the temperature of the water was to hot!. I say invest in a digital thermometer, it is great to have! Cost me about $15.00 from Walmart. You can buy the non-digital for much less.

While your yeast is foaming take the time and get your bread measured out.

I use 3.5 cups of White Bread Flour. Yes I said "bread flour". There are many benefits of using bread flour. I wont go into it to much, just trust me. I have used just Unbleached All Purpose Flour and it is fine! In-fact now that I have done this recipe twice I would recommend if you are starting for your first time, try using ALL unbleached all purpose flour. The bread flour is so sticky and if you are not familiar with kneading and finding the right texture to the bread you may have issues with this bread, if you are doing it by HAND. If you are using a stand mixture you may have a easier time because the machine does all the work for you. However bread flour produces a softer bread. I'm thankful I can go to my super market where they sell it in bulk bins, so I only pay $.42 per lb of bread flour.

Now once your yeast has foamed up, add the other 2 & 1/2 cups of warm water (110 degrees) into another bowl. Measure out 2 tBs of oil and pour into your 2/3 measuring cup, honey (putting the oil in first will help honey come out easy & clean) and 3 tBs of sugar. Stir all together until seems dissolved. (because I only had so much honey left I used 1/2 cup of honey and 3 tBs of white sugar. But u could just use 2/3 cup of honey instead of honey & sugar combo). Then add the yeast mixture and combine.

Then add the yeast mixture into the 3.5 cups of White Bread Flour. Mix all together w/ a whisk. Then I place a warm damp tea towel over bowl and stored into my oven (oven OFF). Then let it rest for 15 min's. This will do a couple things. One it will let the yeast feed off the sugar and help develop some yeast flavors. It will also allow the flour to eat up the water. Doing this will allow your dough to mix properly and make you not "think" you need to ADD more flour because you "think" it feels to sticky.


(adding yeast to flour) 

 (yeast & 3.5 cups of flour combined well)

 

(15 mins has passed for flour to dissolve yeast, becomes sponge like)

While you are waiting, measure out 2 cups of  Whole Wheat Flour & 1.5 cups of unbleached white all purpose flour. No this is not BREAD flour, it is just like an "all purpose" flour, however it is wheat. Using some flour that is NOT bread flour can be better for your dough to be soft and have more proteins to for yeast to feed off (at least I think that's how I read it). Then add 1 tBs of Salt to w.w flour, I used sea salt because that is what I have.

Once the 15 mins has expires, combine the whole wheat flour & all purpose flour with the white bread flour/yeast mixture. Mix together well. Start kneading in the bowl. Then let it sit covered again with a damp towel for 10 more minuets.

The dough was VERY STICKY!!!!!! Oil your counter with little oil. If you feel it needs a little more flour, you can dust the counter with flour and knead. I put about 1/2 cup of flour in a bowl and added a light dusting each time I turned the dough while I knead. I also found that if I wet my hands with a little warm water, this helped the dough not to be so hard handle while I knead it. But just dont let your hands be dripping wet of water. I did have a bowl full of water and I alternated between flour and wetting my hands. Just don't want to add to much flour!!! I should say you may not have as many complications with the dough if you have a stand mixer. Again realize I am doing this all by hand.

(waiting for dough to rise for 60 min)

Once you have kneaded the dough for about 10 to 12 min by hand. Place into a large lightly oiled bowl.

 Place dough in bowl and cover with damp towel. Then I placed back in oven (turned off) for 60 min, until the dough doubled in size. Once doubled in size, lightly punch your dough to deflate it.

(nice a doubled in size)

 (take your fist and lightly punch down the middle)

Yes take your fist and lightly punch it right in the middle. Then oil your counter top and roll dough out on to counter. Start kneading the dough for about 2 to 5 mins. Until it feels like you have removed the air bubbles.

Then I divided dough into 3 separate balls, just take a knife and slice into three sections. You can make 3 loafs OR one for  bread loaf  pan, one for making 6 hamburger buns and the last one for making 9 rolls.

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Start with your first ball of dough and roll it out into a rectangle the best you can. It does not need to be perfect. Then just roll the dough from the sides and meet the other side. Take the ends and fold ends over then start to pinch or seal the seems shut. Just pinch, pinch, pinch. You can do no wrong with your pinching method. Then move the dough around to give it a little shape.

 Then you need make sure you have a VERY well oiled loaf pan. I use spray oil for the easiest method. Then place the dough seam down in pan, and even dough by tapping lightly on top. Place a damp towel over top of loaf and put aside and let it "proof" or basically Puff up for about 30 min.

Now depending on the temperature of your place will cause this to happen rapidly or slowly. The warmer your place is the faster it will puff up. Today was a cooler day in my kitchen. I started earlier in the morning, so the temperature was reading about 66 degrees inside and 58 outside. After 30 min my bread had not doubled enough, so I let it go a little long and placed ontop of my stove stop. Where it started to puff a rapid speed from that warm air from the oven being on. Word to the wise, you dont want to "over proof". If for some reason you find yourself not able to bake your bread AFTER you already proofed it, you can place in the fridge until ready. But dont let it sit in there for to long. If you let it proof to long it will deflate once you start baking it. But if its only for a couple hours or so then that should be fine!

Bake in the oven for 35 min or until the bread looks golden brown. Now I HIGHLY recommend you take that digital thermometer (or any meat/bread thermometer you may have) and after the bread has been baking for about 15 mins, place that thermometer through the side then angle down into the middle. You want the temp to reach 195 degrees. This will make it the PERFECT temp for doneness.Once done, remove from oven and place on cooling rack or hot pad. Let it cool down for about 5 min. Then take a butter knife and go around the edges to try to make sure the bread is separated from pan. Then remove bread from the pan and place on cooling rack until completely cooled.

The lesson I have learned with this recipe, is there is a benefit in using BREAD flour vs just using all purpose flour. The end result of this bread was amazing in texture! It was super chewy and airy. If you have ever gone to Subway and had their sub bread, their whole wheat has the same texture as this bread.

Now I stated I made mine into hamburger buns and rolls...I did and they were great with this recipe. I will have to create a separate entry for those. But to tell you the truth, you can probably read Foodie Wife directions for shaping rolls. Here I also followed her idea for the rolls from the Pioneer Woman. Melted butter (2 tBs) brushed on rolls, lightly use SEA SALT (no other) and I used dried Italian seasoning ontop.