Chef's Notes

This is a fairly straight forward recipe. To be fair, it's hard to fuck mess up chili. That being said, we've all fucked messed it up a time or two (or five).

All of that notwithstanding, here's what I did a little differently than the recipe. I like red bell pepper for the color consistency with the orange carrot, because food that all looks the same is kind of meh, but I didn't have any red bell pepper -- only yellow. As you know, I use what I have (no food waste here, Chef), so yellow bell pepper it was.

I buy my rotisserie chickens at Costco or BJs, because they are cheaper, but if you want to roast your own: feel free to do you. I'm just not going to do that when I can grab one for $4.99 and shred it neatly. Some people use their KitchenAid stand mixers to shred it. I don't. I slap on a pair of food service gloves and I grab 3 bowls: dark meat, white meat, bones. The dark meat gets shredded into fine pieces. The white meat gets left as whole as I can. The bones ... well, I don't worry about getting every last morsel off of them. The bones I use to make the chicken stock I throw into everything.

I used dried navy beans in my chili, because that's what I had. I don't do that overnight soak nonsense because it's not 1825. I have an InstantPot. Technically, I have 2 because I have a huge family and sometimes you need 2 InstantPots, a Crock-Pot, a dedicated rice cooker, AND an air-fryer.

We LiStEn AnD wE dOn'T jUdGe. Actually, judge away. I already have one full-time job; I'm not making cooking a second one.

So, beans into the InstantPot. Cover with about 2" water. There should be a bean setting. When it's done, release the pressure, dump and rinse, back into the pot, 2" of water, another round of cooking, then viola! Your beans are ready for whatever you're ACTUALLY doing with them. If you want to use canned beans, you can. Just rinse them well. It'll taste just about the same. I don't buy canned beans because 1 can of beans (price) equals 1 bag of beans (price), but 1 bag of beans (quantity) equals 4-5 cans of beans (quantity). If you are going with dry beans, do NOT add salt to the cooking water. This is a terrible idea and results in the. worst. beans. ever. Just fresh water, rinsing in between cooking. I can usually make enough beans in the InstantPot for that night's dinner in an hour's time. Also, you know you can do other things, while the beans cook. Like set up your mise en place.

Mise en place - a French, culinary term describing the process of having everything diced, chopped, sliced, measured, lined up, etc. and ready to go. This saves you SO MUCH time. Imagine you've got your own cooking show. Line up your ingredients in little bowls and stuff. More dishes? Sure. Easier cooking experience? Yes. Can you just rinse out the dishes that didn't have proteins in them? I do. Go see the part about listening and not judging.

Why the rinsing in between and the fresh water for the second round of the bean cooking? Because that renders your beans with less raffinose and stachyose (i.e. the sugars that cause gas within the human intestinal tract). Do you need a slightly less scientific explanation? Rinsing beans and then cooking with fresh water means you will be able to eat more beans without killing your family with your methane production. 

Lastly, I believe that one's relationship with spice is both personal and private. Thus, my chili won't knock your socks off. A) I'm feeding children and children often have less refined palates. B) I'm feeding people with gastrointestinal issues that don't tolerate spice well. Those who love spice are familiar with the location of the cayenne, the chili pepper, the red pepper flakes, the Tabasco, the Franks, the Cholula, and the Tapatio. They also know where the specialty hot sauces - like Fat Cat brand reside in the refrigerator.

Reminder: I don't get paid if you click that link (or any links you see on this site), so click or don't - it's all the same to me.