Sam's Chili

This is Texas chili in its purest form. No beans. No tomatoes. No ground beef. Just cubed stewing beef simmered in water with a heavy hand of chili powder, toasted cumin, paprika, and garlic until it’s fall-apart tender and swimming in a thick, brick-red gravy.

Toasting whole cumin seeds in a dry skillet before crushing them is the first step, and it’s the detail that separates this from chili made with pre-ground spices from a jar. The heat wakes up the cumin’s essential oils, and crushing the warm seeds releases a fragrance that’s smoky, earthy, and about ten times more potent than anything sitting in your spice rack.

Six tablespoons of chili powder is not a typo. With no tomato base to carry flavor, the spices have to do all the work, and they do. After 90 minutes of simmering, the chili powder and paprika meld with the beef’s own juices into a concentrated, deeply savory sauce. A cracker meal paste stirred in at the end thickens the gravy to proper bowl-of-red consistency.

Chef Tips

• Sear the beef cubes in small batches over high heat. You want a brown crust, not steamed gray meat. That sear is flavor you can’t get back later.
• Add salt partway through cooking, not at the beginning. The liquid reduces as it simmers, and early salting can leave you with an overly salty bowl.
• The cracker meal thickener goes in during the last 10 minutes. Mix it with water first into a smooth paste to avoid lumps.
• This chili is even better the next day. The spices continue to bloom overnight in the fridge.

Variations

• Add heat: Stir in 1 to 2 dried ancho or guajillo chiles (rehydrated and pureed) for more complex heat and deeper color.
• Beer braise: Replace half the water with a dark lager or stout for a richer, maltier base.
• Masa thickener: Use masa harina instead of cracker meal for a more traditional Tex-Mex flavor and silkier texture.