Siôn’s Over the Top (OTT) Chilli

This is definitely my go-to method for making chilli (“chili” in the USA where extra letters are often eliminated from words !) I’m not going to get into the debate on whether chilli has beans in it or not (Texans !). As far as I’m concerned, chilli with two “l”s has beans in it, and they’re usually of the red kidney variety although I have been known to throw the odd cannellini bean in there too !

This post is less about the recipe, and more about the technique, although at the end I will share some of my favourite ingredients/additives. Basically, everyone tends to have their own go-to set of ingredients for chilli, often an evolution of their own experiments and I’m not going to mess with that. I imagine the OTT approach allows for pretty much anything to still be included. The essence of the idea is that the meat is consolidated into a huge meatball and is separated from all the vegetables and they’re cooked differently (but magically at the same time !). All of it is smoked low and slow. Meat suspended above so the juices fall into the cooking veg.

This method involves a few tools, but nothing complicated :

• An oven that cooks slowly and creates smoke – for me that’s a Kamado Joe of course !
• A Cast Iron dutch oven pot to cook the veggies.
• A grill to put over the top of the pot and to support the mega-meatball.
• A meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the meatball.

What ? Why… ?

The logic here is that the meat is as exposed as it can be to the smoke in the smoker, developing a browned crust at the same time (technically called the Maillard Reaction if you didn’t know !). Putting ground meat into a chilli or stew right from the beginning doesn’t get those effects, and it really does make a huge difference in my view. It also allows for a much rougher, rustic, chunky meat bite – the meat hasn’t disintegrated into its lowest ground form that you might get by throwing it all into the pot together.

In Brief…

So the method is simple.

1. Assemble the equipment and fire up the smoker to “low and slow” (about 250F-275F or so). If you have a favourite smoke then set that up too – oak, hickory or mesquite wood chunks or chips are good options.
2. Plan on making a 50/50 ratio of vegetables (excluding beans and tomatoes) to meat. The vegetables are generally onions, peppers, chillies but anything goes as long as these are for smoking/steaming. We’ve also put in mushrooms and sweetcorn at this stage. Celery’s an option too, I suppose. Chop the vegetables and put them in the pot. Splurge a little olive oil in there and some liquid – a large glass of red wine is ideal !
3. Combine all your meat into a huge meatball. Again anything goes but a combination of pork and beef are our favourites. Usually two forms of beef – some quite fatty ground/minced beef (70/30 or 80/20 ratio of lean to fat); some stewing steak or taco steak of some description for chunkiness; maybe some ground pork if you have it; and then one of our secret ingredients – chopped chorizo. Bacon’s a good idea too, or even leftover pulled pork or brisket will work. The idea is to make a monster child-brain-sized/shaped/looking meatball of about the same volume as your veggies. SEASON with a good rub and/or salt, pepper, chilli powder etc etc. – whatever you normally use.
4. I use a wireless meat probe to monitor the internal temperature of the meatball. Stick it right in there.
5. Assemble the meatball on the grill. Put that over the pan of veggies. Put it all in the smoker and allow for a good three hours or so. You’re looking for an end internal temperature of 150F for the meat. Make sure, though that your veggies aren’t drying up during that time. You should see the theatrical highlight of this dish – the juices from the meat pouring off and through the grill into the pot below. Not a drop gets wasted as the vegetables soak up that lovely liquid.
6. Once the meat is cooked, take it all off the smoker. Add into the pot the tomatoes, chilli beans and extra seasonings (your own special ingredients) and whatever extra liquid you need. Crumble the meat in there as well. Discard the meat thermometer and grill now – you’re in traditional stewing, tasting, adjusting, repeat territory now. At this stage you can move the pot inside onto the hob or keep it going on the KJ.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. As I say, less of a recipe – more of a technique to try if you have an outdoor smoke making cooker. Of course, you can recreate this inside too, in the oven. You won’t get the smoke effect, but you will get the benefit of the chunky meat and the crispy, crunchy surface.

Final note…

Although this isn’t a recipe as such, I thought I’d share some of the experimental additives I put into my chillis – not usually all at once. Some of these ingredients are very British (black treacle, Worcestershire sauce !) and others have a more American provenance (coffee brisket rub, molasses). There’s never a set recipe for me here either and it’s fair to say that a good chilli follows some consistent guidelines but in the end it’s usually a seat-of-the-pants concoction.

Have a go at OTT…and bon appetit !