My recent trip to San Francisco inspired the title for my entry in my employer's annual Chili Cook-off:

I'm still not yet a "throw whatever in the pot" kind of cook. I still like to follow a recipe at least once to see how it will turn out, and then tweak the recipe as I see fit after that. The basis for this recipe came from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food. The listing here includes some of my (very slight) changes:

Ingredients

• 2 lb chuck steak, cut into ½ inch cubes
• kosher salt
• black pepper
• 1 tsp chile powder
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 ½ c finely diced onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 Serrano chilies, split, seeds removed, chopped
• 2 jalapeno chilies, split, seeds removed, chopped
• 2 roasted red bell peppers
• 1 chipotle chile in adobo
• 4 oz diced tomatoes
• ¾ c beef stock
• ¾ c “delicious beer”

Preparation

1. Roast the red peppers. Procedure: cut peppers from top to bottom, place skin up on a sheet pan, and place under the broiler until the skin the blackened. Remove peppers and place in a plastic wrap-covered bowl until cool. Peel off the outer skin.

2. Season the beef with salt, pepper, and chile power. In a large skillet, brown all the beef in the oil.

3. In a large pot, sweat the onions and garlic until tender, but not browned. Add the remaining ingredients (but not the beef, yet) and simmer for 10-ish minutes. Puree the mixture.

I used a stand blender because that's what I had. Alton suggests a stick blender (because it’s easier, cleaner, and cooler, and you don't have to spoon out everything from one pot to the next).

4. Add the beef and cook over low heat for 45 minutes.


Miscellany

• Next time, to get a more "chili" flavor, I would add more chile powder and/or cumin. Lots of cumin.
• I used Serrano and jalapeno peppers rather than what the original recipe called for (andro, california). Neither of the two stores I visited were selling fresh andro or california peppers.
• The judges (my coworkers) voted by chili 6th best (How's that for looking on the bright side?) out of 13 entries. Eli won with his Chilisaurus Rex.
• I tripled this recipe for the competition.