Cooking with Athletic: Lisa's Homemade Chili Recipe

We’ve all been cooking a lot more since Coronavirus lockdowns began here in March. Some of us, myself included, quickly grew tired of cooking 3 meals a day, so as a way to shake things up -- and inspired by Liz’s beer bread taste test -- I decided to come up with a 3 course recipe challenge incorporating Athletic Beer. I am not much of a recipe person, I don't really like rules, so I stuck to some of my favorite and simplest things to cook and eat.

Up first: Chili 

When quarantine mandates were first instituted, everyone made a run on canned goods. Luckily, at any given time, I have enough on hand to make at least one large pot of chili. Even luckier for anyone reading this, there are only a few necessary ingredients - the range of what you can add to a chili is quite flexible making it a perfect one-pot anything-in-your-pantry meal that is easy to pull together and can be manipulated based on season or mood. You can even ride Zwift while it cooks (as I did)!

A hearty and smoky beef and beer filled chili was definitely right for the mood of the early quarantine days when this was first concocted, but in the summer you could change out beef, loaded beans and stronger flavored beer for chicken, green chilies and a lighter ale. Or go veggie with a butternut squash and three bean chili.

The Basics

I have a few personal non-negotiables: fire roasted canned tomatoes, lots of chili powder (pretty obvious), lots of cumin (less obvious). My favorite sleeper add-is are butternut squash (great for beef and veggie chili alike), beer, chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (a little goes a long way here). I had not previously used an IPA in my chili but the mix of Run Wild IPA and Free Way Double IPA was a great flavorful addition that will definitely make its way to my go-to ingredient list. 

Aside from that the remainder of ingredients can be substituted and modified as desired. For the tomato base, use whatever you have on hand - jarred or canned sauce, salsa, chopped fresh tomatoes + tomato paste are good options. If all you have is tomato paste you might want to balance that out with some IPA beer or chicken stock. If you only have salsa, but want a bit more smoothness and/or sweetness, throw some ketchup in!

The “Recipe”

Minimal Prep:

• Brown seasoned meat (over-season!) on medium heat in dutch oven (or large pot)

• Drain some of the excess liquid

• Cook any veggies that need additional time to soften (butternut squash, peppers, onions)

• Add some garlic, because always add garlic

• Drain and rinse your beans (canned are best here don’t waste the fresh stuff on chili)

The Rest:

• Throw everything in the dutch oven. For a large pot: 2-3 lbs meat, 3 cans beans, veggies, jalapenos/chiles, 1-2 cans fire roasted tomatoes, fresh or canned crushed tomatoes, .5-1 jar sauce/salsa, hot sauce, .5-1 beer, chili powder, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper

• Turn stove to low, cover pot, and let it all simmer

• Leave on the stove for at least 45 minutes - or however long your workout is, longer is better - tasting at some point around halfway to test the flavor and consistency and tweak spices/sauces as needed

• Make extra to reheat for lazy lunches of chili topped nachos and freeze individual portions for hot summer days when the last thing you want turn on a stove

• Crack open a cold beer and enjoy

Grab your own 6 pack of Athletic Brewing Beer and give it a go. Use code TBD25 for 25% off your first order.