Chili with Vaquero beans

This week’s bean dish was chili with vaquero beans. My original plan for this week was a lentil dish, but after rummaging around in the basement freezer, I realized we had tomatoes, tomato paste, and beef, so a nice hearty bowl of chili came to mind. Perfect for today’s snowstorm, which dropped four inches of snow on us.

I used a conglomeration of three recipes: This one from Rancho Gordo, my mom’s, and this one from Serious Eats.

It had:

1lb cubed beef from Hemlock Hill Farm, down the road from us

1lb Vaquero beans

2 Red onions

Garlic

Dried chiles (ancho, mulato, pasilla, and guajillo)

Mexican oregano

Cumin

Coriander

Tomatoes from our garden

Homemade tomato paste

Beef broth

1 can of lager

Fish sauce

Chocolate

Worcestershire sauce

Bourbon

Salt

Pepper

Turbinado sugar

I liked the vaquero beans. They have great coloring, which they retain even after cooking. They also mostly retain their shape. They I soaked the beans for about 6 hours before cooking them, which sped up the cooking time.

A few thoughts on the chili:

I think this was my first time making chili with a bean other than kidney. I think it is worth experimenting more in the future.

I prefer cubed beef to ground beef, as it gives a more beefy flavor. It does take longer to cook though.

I started using dried chiles instead of powder in 2017, and I’m probably never going back. They add more depth to the flavor. I toast them, soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes, take the seeds out, then blend them with some broth and tomato paste. The blended mixture goes into the pot.

The fish sauce, chocolate, Worcestershire sauce, and bourbon were tips from J. Kenji to build up the flavor complexity and umami. Mostly recommended. I might skip the bourbon and sugar next time, though I’m curious how the flavors will meld in the fridge overnight. I tasted it before and after adding the bourbon at the end, and I think it stood out a little too much for me.

I prefer Fritos with my chili:

I rarely make the same recipe twice. I can’t resist riffing on it and adapting to what we have on-hand. That said, there are elements of this I’d use in a future batch. I only make chili once a year or so. Perhaps I should make it more.