Chili varieties know no limits

Oak Grove resident Martha Alexander says just the smell of chili takes her back to a particular time and season.

“Growing up, our school had chili suppers before the Friday night football games. The parents brought the chili; it was probably a parent-teacher association fundraiser. Now any time I smell chili, it makes me think of football and leaves falling,” she said.

Chili may be the food of fall, but other than barbecue, is there any dish that has so many partisan camps? Beans. Kidney beans. Black beans. Pinto beans. No beans. Vegetarian. With meat. Beef. Pork. Chicken. Cubed or ground? Chipotle or ancho? Beer or wine? Spicy or mild? Red, green or white?

There’s an International Chili Association that sanctions cook-offs with events scheduled from Riverside, California to Orange Park, Florida in November alone. On their website you can find the recipes for the world champion chilis going back to 1967, including George Weller’s Southern Chili Georgia Style, which won the world championship in 2008.

Just like Alexander’s school fundraiser, cooking up a batch of chili is still a great way to raise money. On Saturday, Nov. 13, the Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association will be holding its annual chili cook-off to raise funds for Atlanta Fire Department #1.

And as with barbecue, there are regional variations. There’s a whole section of the country that swears allegiance to Cincinnati-style chili, seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, cloves and chocolate and served with your choice of spaghetti (two-way), beans, onions, cheese and spaghetti (five-way) and every variation in between. Let’s not even get into the whole Texas/New Mexico/Arizona chili debate.

“There has never been anything mild about chili,” boasts the International Chili Association. Nor is there anything mild about chili partisans. People can be pretty vocal about their preferences. But will they stand their ground?

Since chili is so personal, I held my own chili cook-off to decide which recipes I’d share in this story. About a dozen folks gathered in my kitchen to taste the dozen varieties of chili I had whipped up. Opinions were varied, but the editors ruled, and the result of their tasting is the three recipes you’ll find featured inside.

But you know what? At the end of the night, all the bowls and all the pots were licked clean. Even if it wasn’t their favorite, folks just couldn’t resist all that chili. Which just goes to prove that most of us never met a chili we couldn’t like.

These are just three of the many great chilis out there. Feel free to tweak the recipes to suit your taste and your mood, just as the recipes’ creators do.

Jason Genung’s Sirloin Chili

Hands on: 20 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Serves: 8

Boulevard Heights resident Jason Genung is one of those guys who likes to play around in the kitchen. He doesn’t remember the source of the original inspiration for the chili and he never makes it the same way twice. His most recent discovery? The addition of two tablespoons of peanut butter adds just the right note of creaminess. The amount of chipotles in this recipe will give you a fairly mild chili. Increase the number of peppers according to your tolerance for heat. If things get out of hand, Genung adds a splash of heavy cream to calm things down. Our testers want you to know that garnishing with sour cream is the perfect finishing touch.

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 pounds sirloin, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Salt and pepper

1 large onion, finely diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 (12-ounce) bottle dark beer

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup ancho chile powder

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon smoked hot paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1 canned chipotle pepper, diced

2 cups beef stock

1 (15-ounce) can black beans

1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans

1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans

Masa harina, optional

Sour cream, for garnish

Shredded cheddar, for garnish

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Toss sirloin cubes with salt and pepper and begin to brown cubes in hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. As the cubes are browned, about 5 minutes per batch, remove to a bowl.

Once beef is browned, drain any fat from the pan, lower the heat to medium and add onions and garlic. Stir up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and saute onions and garlic until the onions turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Return beef to pot and add beer. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until liquid reduces by half, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to low. Stir in tomatoes, chile powder, molasses, paprika, cumin, coriander, chipotle pepper and beef stock. Simmer chili for 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning at this point.

Add black beans, pinto beans and kidney beans to the chili and simmer another 30 minutes. If you’d like, thicken the chili with a few tablespoons of masa harina stirred into a little water to form a paste and then added to the chili. Garnish with sour cream and cheddar if desired.

Per serving: 470 calories (percent of calories from fat, 38), 32 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams fiber, 19 grams fat (7 grams saturated), 71 milligrams cholesterol, 1,042 milligrams sodium.

Corliss Armstrong’s White Chili

Corliss Armstrong got the original recipe for this chili from one of her coworkers at Delta Air Lines maybe eight or ten years ago. Now she makes this white chili every winter and says her children and family think of it as comfort food. Sometimes she uses leftover turkey or the meat from a rotisserie chicken to get the chili on the table a little faster. She may also add a tablespoon of cumin or substitute a little white wine for some of the chicken stock. Her sister Deborah Moses Houston likes to add a can of Rotel tomatoes, but Armstrong doesn’t like those little red dots of tomato floating around in her “white” chili.

Hands on: 10 minutes

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 8

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 pounds)

2 stalks celery, roughly chopped

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1 bell pepper, roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 (15-ounce) cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed

1 small onion, chopped

1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup grated mozzarella, plus additional for garnish

Avocado, diced, for garnish

In a large saucepan, combine chicken, celery, chopped large onion, bell pepper and salt. Add water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes. Turn off heat, cover pan and allow chicken to remain in cooking liquid until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Remove chicken and cut into bite-size pieces. Strain stock and reserve.

In same saucepan, combine beans, chopped small onion, chiles and garlic. Add 2 cups reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add chicken and cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in mozzarella and add additional stock if needed. Heat until cheese is melted. Serve with avocado and additional cheese.

Per serving: 461 calories (percent of calories from fat, 12), 52 grams protein, 49 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 6 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 95 milligrams cholesterol, 303 milligrams sodium.

Jennifer Collins’ Vegetarian Chili

Hands on: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes