Good Chili

My husband's new favorite thing is chili, really spicy chili. Being the weekend I figured it would be a great day to make chili. My Penzeys catalog had arrived in the mail and there on the cover was a recipe for chili! Here is the recipe, my changes are in parenthesis.

Good Basic Chili
From Penzeys

2 lbs ground beef
3 TB vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper (I used green for more color)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper (I used 1 tsp)
1 tsp cumin (I used 1 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper (I used about a TB)
1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (I used about a TB)
3 TB chili powder
3 cups water
1- 26 oz. can tomato puree (I used an 8 oz can of tomato paste & an 8 oz can of tomato sauce)
2- 16 oz cans 'no salt added' chopped tomatoes (I didn't get the no salt tomatoes)
2- 16 oz cans kidney beans, drained
salt to taste

Brown beef in two batches in a thick-bottomed soup kettle. Drain off fat and set browned beef aside. Heat 3 TB. oil in kettle over medium high heat, adding onions when hot. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add red bell pepper and GARLIC, continuing to cook 2-3 more minutes. Add BLACK PEPPER, GROUND CUMIN, CHIPOTLE and HOT RED PEPPERS to taste plus CHILI POWDER, while continually stirring until spices begin to stick to bottom of kettle and brown (about 30-45 seconds). Quickly add 3 Cups of water. Add tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and the juice they were packed in. Add kidney beans and salt. Add the beef but try not to include any fat that may have accumulated. Stir. When chili begins to boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Ideally chili should be simmered 3 hours to let all the flavors blend together. Stir about every 15 minutes, while checking to make sure heat is not too high, causing chili to stick to the bottom of the kettle. If you don't have 3 hours, use less CHIPOTLE and CRUSHED RED PEPPERS or else they will overpower the other flavors.

(I also added a little wasabi powder, and 3 whole serrano peppers. Next time I think I will add a habenero pepper and really spice up his day! Also if I didn't have the tomato paste instead of adding water I would add chicken or beef stock for more flavor.)

The husband said it was really good chili. It gave him a throat burn which I was hoping for seeing all of the out spices I put in there. I forgot to take a picture, I will at some point. Enjoy