Texas Panhandle Style Chili
Submitted by cmyhairglo
Ground beef and minced bacon browned with a generous pour of garlic and jalapeños, seasoned with toasted cumin seeds and oregano. Panhandle-style means bold, beanless, and built on smoky bacon fat.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
45 minREADY
1 hrsOut in the Texas Panhandle, they don’t mess around with their chili. Bacon goes in first.
Half a pound of minced bacon renders down in a dutch oven, then ground beef, a whole third of a cup of garlic, and diced jalapeños join the sizzle. The amount of garlic here is not a typo. It’s what separates Panhandle chili from everything else.
Cumin seeds get dry-toasted in a separate skillet until they’re fragrant and popping, then stirred in with oregano and diced Roma tomatoes. No beans. No fillers. Just meat, fat, spice, and tomatoes doing honest work.
Chef Tips
- Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until you can smell them. This unlocks a nutty, warm flavor that pre-ground cumin just can’t match. Keep the heat high and shake the pan so they don’t burn.
- Mince the bacon small so it melts into the chili. You’re not going for crispy bacon pieces here. The minced bits render their fat and become part of the sauce, adding smokiness to every spoonful.
- Don’t be scared of the garlic. A third of a cup sounds extreme but it mellows as it cooks down. The finished chili has a deep garlic warmth, not a raw bite.
Ingredients
Directions
Sauté bacon in a dutch oven, over a moderate flame, until it begins to color.
Add beef, onions, garlic, and chiles heat and stir, until well browned.
Meanwhile, heat cumin seed in a dry skillet, over a high flame, for 5 minutes add cumin and remaining ingredients and cook
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