Mexican Chili

This is a Mexican dish and I always wanted to know how it tastes. I had seen Chef. Roger Mooking prepare this dish on his show "Everyday Exotic". It looked really yummy. Well, I didn't follow his recipe completely. I used the ready made chili mix available in the supermarket and also incorporated a few of my own ingredients. To my surprise, it turned out really good. I prepared this dish and shared it with one of my friend who has tasted Mexican Chili before and she told me my dish was very close to what she had eaten and that she liked my dish a lot.

So, here is the recipe for all who would like to try it out.

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Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 2 hours

Serves : 6-7

Ingredients :

21/2 pounds of lean ground beef

1 packet of Old El Paso chili mix or any other brand

1 bottle of dark beer

250 gms of canned kidney beans drained and rinsed

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 red bell pepper finely chopped

1 big tomato finely chopped

250 gms of chunky hot mexican salsa

2 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp cayenne pepper

3 tbsp chili flakes

1 tsp roasted cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

salt to taste

pepper to taste

2 cups beef stock

2 tbsp oil

3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves.

Method :

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, place the beef in it and cook it till all the moisture has evaporated and the beef is browned. You can do this in batches.
• Drain out the excess fat and deglaze the pan with half a bottle of beer. Add this to the beef and keep aside.
• In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and add garlic, onion and fry for about 5 minutes till the onions have turned slightly pink. Then, add the bell peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes.
• To this add the hot Mexican salsa and the chili mix and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour the remaining half bottle of beer to this and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Combine this with the beef mixture, add all the remaining spices, the beef stock and cover and cook on low flame for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Keep stirring in between, so that it doesn't stick to the pan.
• After 1 hour 15 minutes, add the kidney beans to the beef and mix well and cover and cook again for another 15 minutes.
• Finally, adjust the seasoning if required and remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with garlic bread.