John C. Dvorak Chili Recipe for Superbowl Sunday: Add Beer

aNewDomain.net — Our cofounder John C. Dvorak shares his award-winning chili recipe below. It’s called the Moch-4-Bean-Bogative Chili. It’s perfect for Superbowl Sunday. Find out how to make the John C. Dvorak chili recipe. Cook up the chili. Turn on the Superbowl. Add beer.

The recipe you see below won the first COMDEX Chili Cook Off, as sponsored by Micrografx way back when. And the year after that, it won the same cook off’s coveted People’s Choice award. COMDEX and that chili cook off are long since retired — as is this recipe — but if I were going to enter it ever again in a contest, I’d add pure ancho powder. That’s to allow for the exaggerated ancho flavor that’s so popular now.

The so-called John C. Dvorak chili recipe below is a classic four-bean chili. Here’s how to make it. I call it Moch-4-Bean-Bogative chili.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 pound of boneless chuck. Cut it up into 1/2-inch cubes
Half a pound smoked ham, diced
28 ounces of ground whole tomatoes Use canned tomatoes
Two red onions on one large torpedo. Dice them.
One 30 ounce can of red beans  I prefer the Hunts brand
One 15 ounce can of pinto beans
One 15 ounce can of Great Northern beans
One 27 ounce can of standard kidney beans
Four ounces of chopped, de-seeded fresh jalapeno peppers
One heaping tablespoon of chili powder. I prefer the Grandmas brand.
One tablespoon of red peppers, crushed
One quarter cup  of Dry Sack sherry
Four garlic cloves

The basic concept here is to create a spicy bean stew that shows off the distinct flavors of the four kinds of beans. I developed this recipe over about a decade, using a lot of trial and error. I learned, for one thing, that canned beans are a must. They make this chili.

Directions:

First, saute the onion in butter.

In a large pot, separately mix the ground tomatoes, all the beans and the crushed red peppers. Simmer.

Meanwhile, when the onions look to be about half cooked, add the sherry. Boil the mixture down by about two-thirds. Then pour the mixture into the other pot, where the beans are cooking.

Add more oil to the pan where you cooked the onions. Brown the beef and garlic there. Add your tablespoon of chili powder to the meat that’s cooking. Keep it going for three to five minutes. Then add to the pot of beans.

Now add your chopped jalapenos to the bean, meat and tomato mixture. If you wish, add the optional tomato sauce. Heat for 10 minutes.

Serve in bowls with abundant amounts of cold beer at hand.

Editor: If you like the recipe above, check out John C. Dvorak’s California-style hot dog recipe here.

for aNewDomain.net, I’m John C. Dvorak.

John  C. Dvorak is co-founder with Gina Smith and Jerry Pournelle of aNewDomain.net. An award-winning commentator, he  discusses these sorts of issues with Adam Curry on the No Agenda Show. Check it out at www.noagendashow.com , and follow John @theRealDvorak. He writes Tech Stock Corner for aNewDomain.