Budget Gourmet Dinner

Budget Gourmet Osso Bucco Red Wine Chili

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 orange pepper

1 red pepper

1 jalapeno (fresh is best but canned works too)
5 garlic cloves
1 yellow onion chopped
4 slices of bacon
1 lbs chopped flat steak
1 lb ground chuck (this helps to add flavor from the great fat content)
2 tbs chili powder
1 dried chipotle pepper (or 1 tsp grown chipotle/ 1/4 tsp cayenne)
2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 32 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of red kidney beans

2 cups beef stock

1 cup red wine

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

Throw it together as follows:

Fry bacon until crisp and nicely rendered.   Remove and set aside. Drain fat, leave yummy bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add olive oil to the pan and heat up. 

Add chopped steak and ground chuck, salt and pepper then fry nice and brown, if you don't let it brown it will not have that deep beef flavor you want in your chili.  

Add onions and let sweat for two minutes.  Add peppers and sweat for a 2 minutes.  Then add garlic and cook on low for another minute. 

 

Add all spices except chipotle and mix in let sit on low heat for 1 minutes.  Add back bacon.  Deglaze the pan with the red wine, add balsamic and cook for 10 minutes.

Add tomatoes, beef stock, beans and chipotle.  Taste season with salt and pepper as needed.  Heat from whole pepper will develop as it cooks so don't be deceived if it does not seem spicy when you first taste it.  Of course, if you like it really spicy add 2 chipotles right away, this is just a mild spicy version above. 

We served this over creamy polenta, everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Let me  know what you think and if you found any changes that enhanced flavor.