Below is a basic recipe I've been using for years. Never comes out precisely the same because it's based on fresh peppers and they vary a lot. Fresh peppers are best. I like a variety of them in chili...lends a balance. Taste test each variety for flavor and heat just to see what you're dealing with. They're all different. Not just by type of pepper, but where/when they were grown.
Ingredients:
2# ground chuck
2# ground pork
2 tbl olive oil
½ cup red wine
2 cups beef stock
2 cans crushed or diced tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
2 Anaheim peppers (seed & fine chop all peppers)
6 jalapeno peppers
2 Serrano peppers
2 red finger peppers
2-3 large white onions (medium-fine chop)
8 large cloves garlic (minced)
½ tsp red chili flakes
2 tbl dried oregano
2 tbl dried basil
2 tbl ground cumin
1 tbl gray sea salt
2 cans red kidney beans (19 oz, rinsed)
2 cans black beans (19 oz, rinsed)
Very simple cook:
Brown meat in olive oil, drain. Add remaining ingredients and simmer covered 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Sometimes wait an hour before adding the beans.
Modify the recipe depending on what peppers are at the store...sometimes throw a habanero in. Usually double or triple the recipe. The wide range of peppers adds color, as well as different heats and flavors. Don't sauté them because that causes them to lose both color and a bit of crunch. Same with the onions and garlic. This chili has character.
Usually toast whole cumin seeds and grind them up with a mortar & pestle. Toasting definitely releases more fragrance and flavor.
Prefer soaking dried beans overnight and cooking them separately but canned work fine.
You can substitute ale or stout for the wine but I don't recommend that unless the entire batch will be consumed within 2 days. There's something about beer that makes chili get skanky pretty quick.
