Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Smoked Chili

So I decided to play with the smoker again. Thinking that I wanted chilli so whats better than having it smoked right? So I loaded in all the ingredients and figured I'd smoke em first then transfer it into the pot for the final touch of spicy goodness. Not sure how it'll turn out but guess we'll see soon enough.

Dang, I think you might be onto something.

Can't hurt it that way. I have put a tray full of ranch beans in a rotisserie smoker alternated with a rack of brisket and/or tri tip. Beef drippings and smoke didn't hurt those either.

While not smoking, I have cooked scratch chili entirely on the egg in a Dutch oven. The wood fired/smoke gave it a flavor I can only describe as hearthy. It is very good.

The only concern I see with your smoked aproach to the meat and onions is that the chilis and other spices may over power it during simmer.

Well the turn out wasn't as good as I thought. On the top rack there are different chilies, garlic, onion, topped with a few slices of peppered bacon. Bottom tray was more peppered bacon and 4 pounds of 80/20 ground chuck. Only had Mesquite or Apple woods so I went with Mesquite thinking it would give it a thicker overall taste with the spices during simmering.

Well next time I wont smoke the vegies. The smoke flavor was actually a bit over powering IMHO. Now the bacon and the meat, oh yea. Seemed to all come together at the end making a Texas Style Smoked Chili which was hearty, but it almost had that BBQ flavored sauce. Never did like sweet style chili at all. After it sat for a few days it was a lot better, kinda like smoking cheese I guess.

So next time I'll smoke the meats, then brown the vegies in cast iron, add my spice and smoked meat, simmer, then maybe finish the last hour in the smoker.

Now just to figure out what kind of wood to use. I'm thinking Apple or Hickory would have been better?