Serves 10-15
Total time: 3 hours
Ingredients
900g lean ground beef
1 pack Sucklebuster Ghost Town Chili Blend
1 can diced tomatoes (796mL) - substitute 500mL beef broth for Texas Style
2 cans red kidney beans (796mL), drained and rinsed - omit for Texas Style
2 large onions, diced
1 head of garlic, pureed
250mL canola oil or beef suet
Garnish
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Chives
Grated Cheddar
Equipment
DirectionsÂ
- Get the kettle going at 225F and place your ducth oven right into the coals. This is where you will be making the chili.
- Add the oil to the medium heat dutch oven, add the diced onions and sweat until they become translucent. Do not allow them to brown. Add garlic and stir to sweat that as well.
- Â Add canned tomatoes and stir to deglaze the pan. (if you are doing a Texas style, add beef broth at this stage instead of diced tomatoes).
- Add kidney beans (or don’t, if you are doing it Texas style). Stir to mix everything together and then put the lid on the dutch oven.
- Add two chunks of hardwood to the charcoal around the dutch oven. Close the lid of the kettle to allow the chunks to start smoking. NOTE: If you leave the lid open at this point, there will be too much oxygen causing the chunk to ignite and it will burn instead of smoke.
- While the kettle is building smoke, take your ground beef and add half of the Ghost Town Chili seasoning and mix thoroughly. Form the beef into a ball.
- Once the kettle has a thin blue smoke coming out of it, it is time to remove the lid of the dutch oven and put in the cooking grates. Place your ball of seasoned beef on the cooking grates directly over the open dutch oven. Close the kettle lid and allow it to smoke for an hour.
- Depending on the fat ratio of your beef, you may want to skim some of the oil at the top of the pot. Once the beef is fully cooked, remove it from the grill and carefully remove the cooking grates and place the ball of beef into the dutch oven and break it up. Mix everything in and continue to cook on medium-low heat with the lid open for another hour. Stirring as needed so the bottom of the pan doesn’t catch.
- Once everything is cooked, taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking and then remove from the heat. Serve with finely chopped chives, cilantro, grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.