The Art of Making Game Day Chili

A little bit of cumin is added to this pot, and as it moves around and gets heated up, it really brings out the flavor of the dish. Cumin is a key ingredient that adds depth and warmth to the chili. It's a trick that many cooks use when making chili to bring out the natural flavors of the ingredients.

As the pot heats up, the aroma of the spices starts to fill the air, and you can tell that something special is happening. The cumin is blooming, or bringing its flavors back to life, and it's creating a rich and savory scent that's hard to resist. To take it to the next level, some chili powder is added to the pot, which adds a smoky heat to the dish.

The ground beef is then added to the pot, and it starts to break up and release its juices. A teaspoon of salt is added on top, which helps to bring out the flavors of the beef and add depth to the dish. Salt is an essential ingredient in many recipes, and it's especially important when making chili.

As the beef cooks down, it starts to brown and develop a rich flavor that's hard to resist. A teaspoon of black pepper is added on top, which adds a sharpness and bite to the dish. The pepper is coarse and chunky, which helps to create a nice texture contrast with the smoothness of the chili.

Now it's time to add the ninja part of the recipe - jarred marinara sauce. This might seem like a cop-out, but trust me, it makes all the difference in bringing out the flavors of the ingredients. The marinara sauce adds a depth and richness to the chili that you just can't replicate with fresh ingredients.

As the sauce is poured into the pot, the aroma fills the air, and you can tell that something special is happening. The flavors are melding together seamlessly, creating a rich and savory scent that's hard to resist. To take it to the next level, some scallions are added on top, which add a fresh and crunchy texture to the dish.

Now that the chili has come together, it's time to taste and adjust. A few tweaks here and there, and this chili is ready to go. But before we serve it up, let's talk about the toppings. In this case, some crinkle fries are added on top, which create a nice texture contrast with the smoothness of the chili.

As we wait for the game to start, the chili sits patiently in the pot, waiting to be devoured. And then, just as the kick-off is about to begin, it's time to serve up this delicious chili and take a seat on the couch for some well-deserved snacking. The scallions are chopped up fresh, and the cheese sauce is heated up - it's time to get this party started!

As we sit down to enjoy our game day chili, the Coast Guard is mentioned as a fitting reference - because let's face it, this dish is a home run. And as Jeff would say, "It's not your business" if you don't like the cheese sauce - but trust me, it makes all the difference in taking this chili to the next level. The crunch of the pickled jalapenos adds a nice texture contrast, and the scallions provide a fresh and crunchy bite. And as we take our first spoonfuls of this delicious chili, we know that we're in for a treat.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSunny. It smells amazing coming from overthere.What have you got? My beefy butternut squashchili.Oh, yes.You can't help. So.First things first. We've got a butternutsquash that's already been peeled.If you can just dice that for me, and it'sgoing to go into the chili later.So, you know, what I did is I started offwith some chop and I just cut it into chunks.That's why I.Call it beefy, because it's two layers ofbeef going down here, right?I'm going to get chunky and then I'm goingto have some ground beef as well.Double beef. Double beef, baby.So what I did was I brown that into the pan.I'm not trying to cook it, just brown it witha little bit of fat.And then in that.Same Dutch oven, I've got some onion, garlic,red bell pepper going right now.That's what smells crazy good.And then going to start with some flavorfrom tomato paste.Great. Just a little squeeze.And the key here is it comes out so brightred, but the idea is to cook it down untilit's a really deep brown.So in there I'm going to put some hot sauce.Your favorite hot sauce.Right now, I'm going to add in my seasoning,the same seasoning that I'm going to add itnow is just half of what I already put.Onto my ground, Chuck, And that's going to besome black pepper, oregano, salt, chilipowder, pumpkin pie, spice.Whoa. It's awesome, because it's got thecinnamon, the ginger.It's really warm and some cumin.All right. So right in here, that.Seasoning blend, the other half.Of it that didn't go into the ground.Chuck, the hot sauce just made it down here.Yeah. Tickle in my nose.Now into the pan. Right now.I've got the ground, Chuck.That's just 80%.20%. You know, if you get the sirloin, it'sjust got to have enough fat to hang out.Most people would think chili has beenstunning.So what's your. All right.I'm a no bean girl.My chili. I'm a big.Girl in my chili.But I've been around so many differentplaces.Detroit Chili, Texas chili.I'll mean I'll just take it how it comes.But I prefer no beans. Yeah.I'm with you.I think that people put the beans in becausethey're like, Hey, let's put a little bitmore texture, and we're going to get thatwith the butternut squash.So now I've got the beef, mostly brown.I can add back in the chuck that I chucked upbefore.I love cinnamon and chili.A nice little hints of it.And pumpkin pie spice has it.And right at the end I'm going to do asecond layer of that chili for you.So just get the beef in there andincorporated.Oh, yeah. And the beefy butternut squash.This really happened because I had abutternut squash sitting around.I was going to make chili and I was like,Why not sort of soak up the flavor?It's bright, it's going to bring some colorto it and it works out.You can also do this with sweet potatoes.Cornmeal thicken it up.I love cornmeal in chili.It just kind.Of thickens it up. Makes a little bit of agravy for you at the end, tightens.It for you. So over the top of that, somebeef stock.This is like the perfect Halloween meal.A little red wine in there and then justcover it.Up, cook it down.It takes about 40, 45 minutes or so foreverything to get nice and tender.And then you have.Oh, bubbling a little.Beefy butternut squash.Wait, I have I'm adding a garnish.So here's here's the idea.You take a tortilla, of course I'm going toadd a tortilla.You can just take a cookie cutter and cutout a shape.And then just like you would fry a tortillachip, a 350 degree oil until it's nice andgolden brown. You fry them and you get theshapes like this.You that really important, though You haveto salt it when they're nice and warm so thatthe tortilla actually absorbs the salt.Otherwise it'll just fall off.So add that nice crunchy you can do one ofthese.Oh, that's so good.I'm making my easy chili cheese French breadpizza.So simple.I've got the same bread.I've hollowed it out a little bit, though,so I can put that chili in there and just putthe spread to the side. You can makebreadcrumbs.You can also put it on a sheet and toast it.If you've got like a cheese sauce at yourbig game party, it's fun for a dip for yourguests. All right, so this is just storebought garlic butter.Be generous. You know, sometimes I'll evenkind of go in and just pour it down thecenter and then spread it around.I'm going to get this into the oven to toastit.You could do 400, 450.You're just going for the edges to getlightly golden brown, and then you're goingto bring it back out and top it.Get this in here.Should only take about, oh, 10 minutes forit to get like this.Then on the inside, I'm going to add my fiveingredient chili.So the five ingredients are so simple.It's just some ground beef, a can oftomatoes and green chilies, a can of blackbeans and onion and chili powder.All right, so I'm going to get this into thehollows here.Just scoop this in here and get it along thelength.I used to be team no beans in my chili untilI put some black beans in.We've got kidney beans here.If you want to lean the beans out, you'remore than welcome.And this recipe is actually so simple.All those ingredients just add them.Makes a very quick and simple chili for yourguests.Just five ingredients.We've got that recipe on the Food Networkkitchen app, and I'm even demoing it live foryou so you can see how to put it together.But I mean, come on.It's so simple.All right. Over the top of this chili, I'mgoing to add a blend of cheese, just cheddarand Monterey. Jack.You can use cheddar and pepper, Jack, butI'm bringing a little bit of fire withjalapenos in the end.And what I really like about the jalapenosis they kind of show you a serving size.It makes it easy for people to slice up andportion on their own.So mounds and mounds of cheese.Now, over the top of that, just, you know,think about the serving size and put ajalapeno freshly sliced along the length aswell.And then you can imagine when this comesout, people are going to cut between thejalapenos. Everyone gets a nice littlejalapeno bite and it also adds some curbappeal. And just keep on going down alongthe length.Now, this isn't done when I bring it out ofthe oven, there's more toppings as as cheesy.And I recall. Wow, Cheesy.The extra. What is going on?Please. Okay, I'm going to get this into theoven for about 15 to 20 minutes at 400degrees. All right.Over here, putting a little bit of scallionsover the top.Making it rain.Scallions, rain. Make it rain.You can't have enough basil or cheese, asfar as I'm concerned.Cilantro over the top.To kind of match your basil love.Oh, then a nice drizzle of crema.If you can't find Crema, it's just a looserversion of sour cream.Just get in there and add a little bit ofmilk to your sour cream or even water.Sometimes I'll do some lime juice to loosenit up.It sounds better. Crema, Right.It does. Just get that on there and then anice shake of hot sauce.You ready to put this down, Cheesy?Oh.This is a lot of work here.All right.Beep, beep, beep.I mean, come on. Oh.Hook me up with the chili and the cheese.And the chili. And the cheese.There you go. Okay.All right, GZ. Of course he would cut his inhalf.I'm going to cut mine. Just like you.Sure.Those are delicious. The crunch.Mm. All right, B, lay.Down. It's my Tex-Mex Chili Mac skillet.All done on the grill.All right, so the grill is at about 375degrees.When I open it up, I have preheated my castiron pan here and I'm going to start just byadding some oil.Right. And then to that, I'm going to add mychili powder.And some cumin.Obviously we're making Chili Mac, so you'vegot to have the chili powder.But the Tex-Mex of it all comes through withthat cumin.So now it's a good time to get in the beef.I'm just using some 8020 blend right here.Really easy.You can also do 85, 15, whatever they've gotat the grocery store I found these days.I'll take whatever they have.I get that in.Don't forget to have a towel so you canhandle your pan.Move that baby around.All right, Now's a good time to reallyseason up this beef.And I always say when I'm talking about beefand it's a pound, a teaspoon of salt does thetrick. So she's spoon over a nice bit offreshly cracked black pepper.All right. I made some marinara saucehomemade one night, and I had some leftover.And the next day I really wanted chili, andI just added some chili powder and some cuminto it. And it did the trick, so I didn'thave to really make the chili.It was already done to just add some of thatin there.Move that around.I love to do this pasta.Have you seen it that you microwave so itcomes ready to go.You just zap it in the microwave for a fewminutes.But what I like to do is not zap it.I just kind of use it as is.It's pa cooked already and it's shelfstable.And what I love about it is a lot of timeswhen we're making pasta, we encourage you toadd the pasta to cook in the sauce for thelast couple of minutes.So it's really smart to do it here.So remember microwavable pasta, but don'tmicrowave it.And I'm using Rotini here, but they've gotelbows and pinny.It's fun to use right in.And then just move it around.You can see it's already very limber.So just level that out and get it ready forthe yummy topping cheese.Now, because this is Tex-Mex, I'm using amexican blend.It's usually got some Monterey jack and somecheddar.So if you can't find a mexican blend, thecheddar and Monterey Jack blend is just asgood right over the top.Right to the edge.All of it. And then a little bit of curbappeal.I like to just take a couple of jalapenos,slice them up and get them over the top.You can get cute about it or you can justput them on there.Guess which one I'm going to do?Okay, More. All right.I'll leave some and act like I have a littlebit of sense.All right. I'm going to close this up.You can tell, obviously, your grill is goingto go down in temperature, so give it aminute to rise back up to about 375.And then after that, probably about 10 to 15minutes and you're done.Time to lift it.Oh, this looks crazy.Okay. Wow.Look at that.Deliciousness on ten.My Tex-Mex easy Chili Mac.So delicious, bubbling with flavor.Now, you know, I would normally tell you towait a few minutes so the juices canredistributes and all that good stuff andnot slide all over the plate.But come on, look at this.And don't forget.Oh, the Mac part.She's Paul official.I always go in for another scoop.Look at that. Check out that.Ready? To go for your microwave pasta tosuch a way to.Shorten up the process.All right. Now, usually it's sour cream, butI found lately in my kitchen that Greekyogurt is a great substitute.Plus, it's delicious.So why not get some on there?Just plain whole fat?And then some scallions.Right over the top.Look at that. Hmm.Come on, Weeknight warriors, dig in.So many shortcuts I share with you so youcan get it done.Let me tell you something. If you never madea quick chili out of marinara sauce and somechili powder and some cumin.Give it a go.And then adding in the pasta and then throwin on some vegetables like jalapenos.So this is a complete meal I am making foryou, my fries.But it's not just any fry.It's my nonya.Business chili on top of my fries.And I'm just going to load it up just like Ido at the stadium.So let me show you how I get it started.Right here in my pot.I've got some olive oil and some onions justgetting sauteed and rendering down nice andtender and translucent.And to that, I'm going to add in somegarlic.Now, this is my easy nonya business chili.Very simple to make.Usually chili is all kinds of layers offlavor and, you know, maybe 30 to 45 minutesof percolating on the stove top.This is going to be done.In a minute.All right. So into that olive oil, I justsaid the oil, but I added a little bit of thegarlic. You could smell it right now.Nice and fragrant to that.A little bit of cumin.I love cumin and my chili just makes ittaste like meat if you ask me.And that's another trick you add ingredientsare going to bring the flavor.Now, I've got my pot here on kind of like amedium to medium high.Move everything around and adding the oiland the spices right now really blooms thespices. So I'm going to add in some chilipowder.And blooming just really means.Bringing it back to life.You know, a lot of times when.You buy spices at the grocery store, it'salready been ground up for like maybe sixmonths to a year. So as it sits there andthose natural oils are just kind of dormantin that bottle, you got to bring it back tolife and it just starts to really smell andtaste like it should.And to that, I'm going to add in my groundbeef and then just go in there and break itup. Oh, it just started to snow.Perfect football weather.Okay. So as we're going into the pot herewith a pound of beef, I like to add ateaspoon of salt.And that's a really good ratio for everypound of ground meat.A teaspoon of salt will get it to theperfect flavor level for you.You don't have to worry about like tastingand wondering.So right over the top.Some salt.And then any time you think salt, you've gotto think pepper.Get that in there.I always end up loosening the top right whenyou loosen the top.There's a plate in the bottom.It takes the plate further apart from eachother, the grinder, and it'll give you abigger, coarser grind of pepper.So the looser, the bigger boulders you getand the tighter, the finer pepper you get.Get that in there.I like a lot of pepper and then just startmoving it around and breaking it up.This is a really good all purpose game day.Chili. All right.So see, that beef is nice and browned.Now it's time for the ninja part.Usually so much work to get the flavor intoa chili.Phone it in with some jarred marinara sauce.Right. It's got everything in it.You want the oregano?Probably some basil in there.The garlic, the onions.Yeah, we just put some onions in there.It's just so we felt like we did something.But this is really.Bringing the flavor right here.Pour that right in. Mm hmm.Yeah, as much as that as I can.Oh, yeah.There you go.Stir this up.All right, So look at that.All came together so quick.Minimal ingredients.They all packed a flavor punch, and I got totake a look at these fries.I'm going to let this percolate for asecond, but I got the fries in here.Yaz yaz och mi crinkle fries, obviously.I think crinkle fries when you're doing anykind of sauce like cheese or chilli over thetop. Really, really smart because they'rekind of like the fusilli of fries.They catch all the sauce in the ridges andthey have a little bit more of like,structure right there, like the rebar friesas well, over the top of my fries.Now, this is not at the stadium, but I likesome scallions, so hey, why not chop these upreally quick and get these into the gameplan?I just enjoy the whole fanfare of going tothe game, eating outside in the open air, andthen enjoying a drink or two while you watchyour team.All right, Scallions, Good to go.It's time to get this baby put together.All right, So I've already got some otherchili right here.Bring this big baby over, then cannot forgetthe cheese sauce.Close this up.And now it's.Just to put it together.Oh, come on.Look at this, Katie.I know you love Chile.Check this out, girlfriend.None of your business.Chile. Ooh, that sounds so good.Extra cheese, please.You know, we're girlfriend, and it's anotheryour business hit because I did not make thecheese sauce. Just heating it up.A little bit of cheese sauce.Come on, buy it.Heat it up.None of your business.Hmm. The Coast Guard, as Jeff would say, thatlooks delicious.All right. Remember scallions over the top,A little bit of a crunch.And then just like at the stadium, somesliced pickled jalapenos.Get him at the Nacho station.I'm telling you, I will take that tray offries all around that section just to getevery topping that I want on it.There you have it.\n"