It’s that time of year again when spicy heat seekers gather to compete, commiserate, and just plain enjoy that perfect fall meal in a bowl—chili. One cooking trend taking the chili world by storm is adding chorizo to achieve a uniquely spicy and super-flavorful batch. The traditional Mexican ground meat is pre-seasoned to perfection with spices commonly found in chili, which means you can scale back on a lot of the other seasonings.
To help us with a delicious chili recipe, we reached out to Patrick Montgomery, owner and founder of The KC Cattle Company. KC Cattle Company specializes in the finest American-born and bred Waygu beef. So, it’s no surprise that Montgomery calls for three types of Waygu beef in this special recipe. “Chorizo is traditionally made from ground pork containing a lot of seasoning and fat. We did the same thing with our ground Wagyu beef.” Says Montgomery. “The best part of Wagyu cattle is the taste and quality of the fat. Because of this, it makes for a superior Chorizo.”
You can use store-bought beef for this recipe, but if you’re really looking to impress, using Wagyu provides a noticeably flavorful and more tender chili. The secret is the fat content of the Wagyu. The fat in Wagyu beef has a lower melting point than other beef, which adds delectable flavor and tenderness. Not only is the fat more flavorful, it’s healthier; it has a higher mono-unsaturated-to-saturated-fat ratio than other beef.
“Heavily seasoned meat with loads of fat are great attributes for quality chili meat. The mistake folks make with Wagyu Chorizo is they drain the fat. It is the best part of Wagyu! Use it for cooking the other meat and veggies in the recipe.” -Patrick Montgomery, Founder of KC Cattle Company.
This recipe calls for beef chorizo, along with kabob meat and ground beef. The ground beef makes for a meatier chili without an overpoweringly spicy chili if you were to use all chorizo. The tender kabob meat gives the chili more texture and depth. Montgomery says you can use stew meat to save a little money, but it will be chewier since it comes from cheaper cuts.
Without further ado, here’s the recipe for a deliciously spicy beef chorizo chili. This recipe gives you the opportunity to fire up your pellet grill or smoker to add a little smoky flavor to the spice. However, it’s perfectly fine to finish the chili in the oven.
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Spicy Beef Chorizo Chili
(Courtesy of Patrick Montgomery)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chili pepper
- Sea salt – to taste
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 lb wagyu chorizo
- 1 lb wagyu ground beef
- 1 lb wagyu kabob meat or stew meat (see note for which to choose)
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 jalapenos
- 1 beer (something with good flavor)
- 1 – 32 oz container of beef broth
- 2 – 16 oz cans of pinto beans
- 1 – 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 1 – 32 oz can of diced tomatoes – Regular
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1 avocado
- Sour cream
- Tortilla chips
Method
- Heat Dutch oven on the stove to medium-high heat. Preheat pellet smoker to 300 degrees F. Pull chorizo, ground beef, and kabob meat to allow to come to room temp.
- Dice green pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, onion, and jalapeño (seeded or un-seeded depending on how spicy you want it) into large pieces.
- After dicing veggies, make sure your kabob meat is cubed into 0.5 x 0.5-inch pieces.
- Once the Dutch oven is hot, add butter. The butter should sizzle and melt very quickly (if using a cast iron, the cast iron should be smoking). Now, add your kabob meat to sear it. About 1 minute per side.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add your chorizo and ground beef. Mix the ground meat together. Allow all meat to cook in fat (DO NOT DRAIN!). Once ground meat is browned, remove ground beef, chorizo, and kabob meat. Leave the fat in the pot!
- Now add your peppers, onion, and garlic to the fat. Mix up your veggies in the residual fat left behind from meat. Allow to cook down for 5 – 6 minutes. While veggies are cooking, remove the lids from cans where needed.
- Add cumin, chili pepper, and salt (I used about one tbsp for each). You don’t need a ton because the Chorizo is already heavily seasoned. Mix seasoning with veggies.
- Now add broth, beer, beans, and meat.
- Transfer to your smoker (uncovered). Allow to cook on the smoker for 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.
- Serve chili immediately with avocado, cilantro, sour cream, and tortilla chips as garnishes.
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