Winning Chili Recipe

At long last, I hereby present to you the recipe that led to the winning chili at the first-ever (and let's hope there's more) Chili Cookoff! (For all the contestants, click here).

This recipe is, obviously, from the winner, #4. Otherwise known as Suzanne. I took no part in the creation of this goodness; I'm just the middle-woman sharing this delicious turkey recipe to all of you!

THE RECIPE
2 lbs ground turkey
3 banana peppers thinly sliced
1 large yellow bell pepper diced
1 small egg plant cubed
1 yellow onion diced
1/2 can (or more) chick peas
Couple chipotle peppers in adobo
1 block of pepper jack cheese shredded
2 small cans tomato paste
1 can chicken broth
1 can Rotel
Red pepper flakes
Taco packets per amount of meat

Brown all vegetables seperately from one another and set aside. All should be cooked in a little olive oil, and salt, except for the eggplant. Saute the egg plant in some of the adobo sauce that your chipotle pepper comes in. (Be careful, that stuff is hot!) Again, set the eggplant to the side.

Cook the turkey and season with a little salt while cooking. Then fully season the meat with a generous amount of the red pepper flakes if you want it really hot, and the taco packets. After you have mixed the seasoning in, throw in the two cans of tomato paste, and about 2/3rds of the chicken broth. Mash it around so that the turkey really gets seasoned. Bring to simmer and let it go for a while. Water and the rest of the chicken broth may need to be added during the simmering process.

After it has simmered to the point of really looking like chili, add all vegetables, including the half can of chickpeas, and semi drained can of Rotel. Mix well. Bring to a simmer again and add a bit of water again if needed to the pan. Cover.

After a few minutes of simmering, mix the chili and take off the heat. Then add in the pepper jack cheese. Be sure to mix well so that it fully incorporates and does not burn at the bottom of your pan. After it appears well mixed once again, add at least one adobo pepper chopped up, and a generous amount of red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer again, and cover until ready to serve (or take to your next chili cook off).

Enjoy!

Superbowl Sunday + Superb Chili

This past Superbowl Sunday, my friends and I hauled out our crockpots, pressure cookers, and casserole dishes to throw together some meat, beans, and lots of other goodies. All in all, four chilis were created.

This wasn't the typical food fight. Rather, it was a friendly competition. We all sampled the chilis, talked about what we liked about all of them--because, in all honestly, all of them were good even if they were completely different--and picked our favorite. Some people used beef, some used turkey, others used a variety of meats, including lamb and pork.

So, which of the four won top pick--along with the prize of an awesomely huge jar of pinto beans? Keep reading, and drooling, to find out.

Chili #1
This chili went into a pressure cooker after the meat was seared. And boy was there a lot of meat, including lamb, pork shoulder, and beef, as well as some beans. A variety of spices heated up the dish. While the dangers of a pressure cooker include drying out the meat, searing the meat first helped prevent that from occurring. All in all, this was a chili that packed a fiery punch.

Chili #2
Made from a family recipe--and cooked in an old-school crockpot--this chili was packed with ground beef, a ton of spicy spices (including many secret ones the cook will not divulge), kidney beans, chili beans, and tomato sauce.

Chili #3
This chili, too, was made based on a recipe given to the chili cook by a friend well-versed in cooking good meals. This chili contender added more spice than the original recipe called for, and made a chili chock full of beef and tomatoes, along with a can of beer and other seasonings.

Chili #4
Unlike the others, this chili was made in a casserole dish and was all about the turkey. There wasn't much sauce, but that was compensated by an abundance of vegetables like banana peppers, yellow bell pepper, onion, chick peas, and egg plant. Rather than use a plethora of tomatoes or sauce, this contender went with just using tomato paste, hence why it looks thicker than the others.


The best part about chili is that they all taste extraordinarily different. No two chilis were alike in this food fight, making voting all a matter of preference. But, with 8 voters, including the 4 chefs, there was an overwhelming response for one chili in particular: #4.

Here's the winner, Suzanne. She's holding the awesome prize (as if it was a football) that will help get her started on her next batch of awesome goodness. (With Maggie 'crying' in the background after losing the Chili Cookoff 2010).

The recipe for the winning chili will be posted soon. Until then, what do you like in your chili? Do you prefer to make your own? Or, do you have a restaurant you like to go to when you need a hot chili to warm you up in the cold Chicago Winter?

An Adventure at Vie Restaurant

I first experienced Vie restaurant when my boyfriend and I attended the first-ever (and let's hope there's plenty more) Bacon Cookoff at Publican in October 2009. But owner and head chef, Paul Virant, long ago established himself in the cooking world. While he didn't come out on top against Iron Chef Morimoto, Virant creates delicious contemporary American dishes with an emphasis on local ingredients.

The restaurant is a testament to simple elegance and minimalist decor. Roses adorn the tabletops and the bar. A fireplace emits a warm glow, and the stacks of wood beside it are just there for show.

While prices are a bit steep, especially considering Vie is located in the Chicago suburbs, every bite is worth every penny. The meal starts with an amuse-bouche, a delightful one-bit appetizer, that consisted of a bite of whitefish and pickled cucumbers, offering a delicate start to the meal.

As for the menu, it may only be one page, but you'll have a hard time deciding between all that Vie has to offer. Luckily, our waitress, Abra, pointed out some usual favorites, including the food she likes to eat herself. She knew what she was talking about; prior to serving as a waitress, she worked as a line cook in Vie's kitchen.

With Abra's advice, my boyfriend, two friends, and I started our extravagant meal with pierogies filled with smoked beef and a crème fraiche. The succulent pierogies sat atop a bed of sauerkraut that lacked the sourness typically associated with the German sidedish, but balanced the heartiness of the beef and the bits of bacon beef. A pickled celery vinaigrette rounded off the dish.

My boyfriend went for the pan-roasted icelandic halibut, a fresh and sizable piece of seafood topped with fried sage gremolata, and grounded by a pile of camargue red rice. The deep color of the rice possibly came from a reduction of red wine and cranberries, or at least that's how it tasted. Sides included sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) and pea shoots. A preserved meyer lemon aioli added a touch of sweetness.

Even when ordering the burger at Vie, you get a specially-crafted dish. Made with Dietzler farm beef, the wood-grilled burger is hearty treat for a reasonable $12. Toppings on this extravagant burger include housemade bacon, clothbound aged wisconsin cheddar, and a pickled jalapeno vinaigrette. On the side, you'll also get a handsome helping of yukon gold potato homefries, along with pickle.

For an even heartier meal, Vie offers the pan-fried bourbon red turkey breast and smothered leg and thigh. This comfort-food dish is sure to fill anyone up. If the turkey isn't enough, it comes with a crispy bread dumpling and a generous portion of butternut squash, winter radishes, and fresh, preserved pears.

As for me, I went for the rack of lamb, medium rare. The outside was crispy, while the inside meat remained tender. An orange sauce added a touch more depth to the perfectly cooked meat. The lamb was complemented by even more meat, a house-made Moroccan spiced mereguez - aka lamb - sausage. The sausage wasn't as spicy and juicy as I expected, but it snapped and was full of savory flavors. This dish, like the burger, also came with housemade fries that were both crispy and soft, a perfect combo in my book. Finally, a handful of cooked leeks graced the side of the dish, offering a slightly crunchy complement to the dish.

Despite the large dishes, we couldn't bypass the dessert menu, which is full of ice creams, sorbets, and other decadent treats. Everything was shared: the crispy, gooey St. Louis-style butter cake topped with egg nog ice cream, as well as the scoop of pumpkin ice cream. The one dessert everyone feared, but dared to try? The chocolate ghost chili ice cream. And we had every right to be afraid.

Ghost chili was declared the hottest pepper in the world in 2007. But call my friends and me crazy, we wanted to give it a whirl. Abra assured us that while it's hot, the cream offsets it. Here's what it looked like:

Oh, wait. That's the daredevil that suggested we try the chocolate ghost chili in the first place. Here's the close-up of the actual dessert:

So unassuming! It looks like just a normal single scoop of chocolate that it's okay to just dig into...right?

Nope! Tread lightly, my friends. The original daredevil took a big scoop, and wowza. It took a couple bites of the pumpkin ice cream, and some gulps of water, along with a few minutes, for the crazy hot flavors to calm down and leave his mouth alone.

So, no one else tried it after him, because we saw the after-effects, right?

Wrong again. We each had some, multiple bites actually. Not bites though, really. More like nibbles, but even then you taste plenty of heat. First, it tastes creamy and chocolaty, and then KA-BLAM, an explosion of heat blows up in your mouth. But then, just as quickly, the spiciness evaporates, and you want more. What some might call torture, I call incredibly innovative and delicious, to an extent. Between the four of us, we weren't able to finish the whole scoop.

Clearly, a trip to Vie promises to be an adventure. From fresh ingredients and heaping portions of food to experimental desserts, I know I intend to go back, even if Vie is on the pricier side. It's just that good.

Ribs WINNER!

Similar to the deep dish food fight, all the ribs looked a bit similar. Sure, the meat was cut differently, their shapes weren't the same, but line them up and it's hard to tell which rib is from which restaurant.

Yet, there's no questioning how every rib tasted different depending on the cut of meat, the way it was cooked, and the barbecue sauce that topped it off. My friends and I argued back and forth - after moments of silence to finish eating each rib - but in the end their was one clear winner who won the prize of official ribs food fight champion.

(Note: When I told people they didn't need to vote using 'round' numbers, they interpreted that quite liberally).

THE OFFICIAL RESULTS

Smoque BBQ baby back ribs WINS!

Smoque clearly came out on top. Maybe it had an unfair advantage, considering it had two chances with two different slabs of meat, but what made this food fight tons of fun - other than the choice of food - was that all of the ribs tasted completely different.

While BBQ took home the coveted prize, not all agreed with the results. Despite Russell's poor showing, some of the eleven eaters/friends stood by Russell's, claiming that it should have at least done better than Honey One, mostly because of the awesome sauce.

Do you agree with the results? Where do you go when you want a hunk of messy ribs?

Contender #1

Contender #2

Contender #3

Contender #4

Ribs contender #4

(Note: Picture was taken after people started digging in; people wanted their juicy, smoky ribs!)

Smoque restaurant is clearly all about barbecue and sells two different kinds of ribs. In addition to contender #2, St. Louis-style, Smoque also makes baby back ribs that are made from a leaner, thinner cut.

The small quantity of meat seemed a slight critique when taking into consideration how tasty the smoked meat was. Again, it wasn't fall-off-the-bone, but the slightly blackened meat was juicy and perfectly complemented by the sweet and slightly spicy barbecue sauce. Even though we were all quite full, you can be sure that every last baby back rib was eaten.

Smoque BBQ
3800 N Pulaski Rd.
Chicago, IL 60641-3197
Ph.: (773) 545-7427

Contender #1

Contender #2

Contender #3


Results

Ribs contender #3

Located in Bucktown, Honey One prides itself on slow-cooking all of its barbecue in a smoker that uses straight wood - which only one other restaurant in Chicago can claim. Patrons can admire this eight-foot smoker, as its out in the open for everyone to see.

As for the food, the ribs were huge, filling up the to-go container and squashing out the side dishes. Already slathered in sauce, the ribs easily fall off the bone, but most people ended up dismayed, because the meat was anything but tender. It was chewy and tough and not as juicy as ribs should be. But people tried to take into account that it just might be because the ribs had been sitting around, waiting to be eaten.

Honey One BBQ

2241 N Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Ph.: (773) 227-5130

Contender #1

Contender #2

Contender #4

Results

Ribs contender #2

Luckily, we didn't go to the restaurants this time around, because we would have waited for quite some time if we had. When I arrived to pickup four slabs of Smoque BBQ - two of Contender #2, St. Louis-style ribs, and two of Contender #4, Baby back ribs - the line wound out the door and to the street in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. As a call-in order, I got to go to the front of the line, where the ribs and sides of mac-n-cheese were piping hot. A dinner of one full-slab of St. Louis ribs, along with slaw and two sides, cost $19.95.

Expectations were set high for Smoque, especially since this was the only restaurant contender that has been featured on TV, such as Food Network's D3: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. These ribs were cut in a rectangle, just as St. Louis-style should be. While the meat seemed a bit more blackened than we would have liked - adding more than just a smoky flavor - there was plenty of juicy meat attached to each and every bone.

Doused in the barbecue sauce, the ribs tasted both a bit sweet and smoky, but not overwhelmingly so (at least for most people). There was a slight peppery taste to the meat and sauce, which added a depth that the other ribs didn't necessarily have.

Smoque BBQ

3800 N Pulaski Rd
Chicago, IL 60641-3197

Ph.: (773) 545-7427

Contender #1

Contender #3

Contender #4

Results