Smoked chili

I'm about done with another batch of smoked chili.

I use a recipe but tweak it with what I have at hand and what seems right. This is eight 28 oz cans of tomatoes (four diced, four whole) first started on the stove. Then your favorite chili seasoning mixture plus the veggies. Chop about 3/4 of the veggies medium coarse and add to the warming tomatoes, and add the seasoning plus add a beer. Get your oak fire going on the smoker and have a beer. Mix 5 lbs regular ground beef & 1 lb ground turkey with the remaining veggies finely chopped and make softball-size meatballs. Place the uncovered dutch ovens in the smoker, add a grate of some kind over them, place the meatballs on the grate over the chili. Stop to admire what you've done so far while treating yourself to a beer. Let the meat smoke around 45 mins until a nice but not too thick skin forms. You can let it smoke too much if you're not careful, so stop at around 45 mins. Coarsely chop the meatballs and add them and another 1 lb of plain ground beef in and cover the dutch ovens. The ex-meatballs will be chunky and the added 'background meat' will fill the recipe properly. Let the temps rise to about 200* and try to hold it there. I think it's about time for another beer, don't you? Lay on the couch with the dog for a bit stirring the chili occasionally. About two-three hours on simmer and you'll be perfect. Guess what, it's beer time again.

I'll freeze this batch as a Christmas & Hannukah gift for our school's Maintenance Dept. They keep our school running and I use them all the time for deliveries. Usually I do this when it's cooler but we're expecting our first two grandchildren in Oct and Nov so I won't have time to do it later. I tested a batch and it's killing me not to "test" more but if I do there won't be enough for the Maint Dept.

 

This looks and sounds really good. This thread was an inspiration for me to try browning hamburger in a smoker on a griddle, and it was awesome.

I lit up some charcoal with some oak chunks in it, got the griddle hot, a small bit of oil (85/15 burger) and then I mostly browned it with the lid on so the burger could pick up some smoke.

Once the burger was cooked I put it in a cambro, and then on the indoor stove got some fresh garden tomato going in a skillet with some olive oil and garlic. After a bit I added some tomato sauce and thyme, and then the browned burger with part of a beer. Once that was cooked down a bit I loaded the goop into some very large precooked pasta shells, put those in a pyrex with a bit of cheese on top, into the oven long enough to melt the cheese, and the oak smoke in the burger made it to the plate. Two thumbs up.

You are on to something here Rick. Thanks for the inspiration.