JMSetzler
Babbling Farker
Football season and chili seem to go well together for me...
Smoke Alarm Chili
- 2 to 2 1/2 lbs of cubed boston butt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 15oz cans of dark red kidney beans, drained
- 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 28oz can tomato puree
- 1 bottle of beer, divided
I cut up my 2.5 lbs of boston butt into cubes… See notes on this at the end…
Put the cubed boston butt into a 5 quart dutch oven over medium high heat and brown. Put the onions, red peppers, and garlic into a frying pan with the vegetable oil and sautee until semi-transluscent. When the sautee is finished, add the onions, red pepper, and garlic to the dutch oven with the beef and stir.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the beer to the dutch oven and stir to mix completely. Cover the dutch oven and let simmer over low heat…
While the chili is simmering on the stove, go fire up your smoker. Today I chose to use my mini smoker. I used a combination of apple and hickory wood for the smoke. Let the smoker get up to 250-260° and settle in at that temperature.
When the temperature settles in at 250° or so, transfer your dutch oven with the chili to the smoker, uncovered and put the lid on the smoker. Add 1/2 cup of beer to the chili at this point and stir it in.
Open the smoker and stir the chili every 30 minutes or so for two hours. After two hours, add another half cup of beer to the chili and stir it in. Let smoke for another two hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so. After four hours, take the chili off the smoker, cover it, and let it sit for 20 minutes or so before serving… This chili has an AWESOME flavor.
Notes:
There are two new concepts happening for me today with this chili recipe. First of all, I have never cooked chili on a smoker. Second, I have never used cubed boston butt as a chili meat. As far as cooking on the smoker is concerned, I have no regrets there. The smoke flavor is very nice in this chili. The cubed boston butt, however, may not make the cut on my next round of using this technique. Boston Butt is layered with strips of fat and they did not render out as much as I had hoped when I started this dish. Some of the meat cubes still have fat strips in them after the cook. Everything about this chili is completely awesome with that one minor exception. The flavor, texture, and consistency of the meat is great. It’s melt-in-your-mouth tender for sure. My suggestion, if you choose to use cubed boston butt, is to work with leaner pieces of meat from the butt. Try to avoid the pieces that have a higher fat content. You can also make this with any type and texture of meat you like. It doesn’t have to be butt… it can be brisket, ground pork, ground beef, or even SPAM for that matter… Have fun with it!
