Beer Chili and Honey Cornbread

Ingredients:

This recipe make a MOTHERLOAD of beer chili, so if you don't want a motherload of chili half it...or do what I do and freeze about half of it.

This is my favorite recipe for chili. I found somewhat of a basic chili recipe that I have changed a bit every time I make it and this is what I have found to be my favorite. However, usually during the summer I delete the chocolate and add in some corn.

Ingredients:
- 3 lbs ground beef (Get as lean as availible, I used my local butchers special grind that is 96% lean)
- 3 Onions, coarsly chopped
- 1 Head of garlic, should be about 12 cloves
- 2 28oz cans of Diced Tomatos (you can use whole or crushed depending on the texture you like, but leave the juice in)
- 2 15oz cans of black beans, drained
- 2 15oz cans of kidney beans, drained
- 1 can chipolte peppers, sliced, with the adobo sauce from can
- 1 12oz bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (I bought a 24 oz bottle knowing full well that I only needed 50% of it, the other half was consumed during this very preperation!)
- 1 can of beef broth
- 5 Tbsp oregano
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1 Tbsp Cumin
- 1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke (entirely optional, the odobo sauce is already sort of smokey, so if you don't love a lot of smokey flavor, don't add this.)
- 2.5 oz Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate (I bought this because it was on sale, you can use any dark chocolate, but I wouldn't recommend using some expensive stuff since all of the complexity would be lost in the chili.)

Step 1:

To begin peel you onions and garlic and pour the beer into a big ol pot and get it warming up.

Step 2:

Now chop the onions and garlic and get a pan warmed with just a bit of olive oil in the bottom.

Step 3:

Toss the onion/garlic mixture into that pan and saute it. Don't be a fool and put this on high heat and burn them. Use a medium heat and only keep them on long enough to turn them translucent, this should take about 10 minuets.

Step 4:

Meanwhile you should melt your chocolate in the now warmed beer, make sure you continue to stir so it doesn't melt onto the bottom of that pan.

Step 5:

Once the chocolate is melted toss in all of your canned goods and spices, stir that around and dump in your onions/garlic as soon as it is ready.

Step 6:

Now brown your beef in the same pan that you did your onions, I used worcestershire on my beef because it rules. Then dump that in and bring it all to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for at least a half hour. You may want to taste this after it simmers a bit and add more peppers if you want it hotter.

Step 7:

While that gets delicious we can make the honey cornbread. Preheat to 350.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal

Step 8:

Mix you dry ingerients, then wisk you wet ingredients in a seperate bowl. Mix the two together and pour into a greased pan or muffin pan. Bake for about 30 min.

Step 9:

About now is where I stick half of it in the freezer and the other half in a crock pot to sit for about 10 hours. Beer chili is always better the next day.