Important Tip for Chili Cook-off contestants:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

If you can get your entry tasted FIRST, or as early as possible, you've got a huge advantage over the rest of the pack. Especially if you're entry has some fire to it.

I got roped into judging a chili contest at my work. 9 different entries. The second one was a really fiery, vegetable based one (there was meat also but a significant emphasis on veggies), with a lot of "afterburn". I like a fiery chili anyway, but I'm not really sure that I was able to adequately taste any of the subsequent entries, LOL, as my taste buds were largely fried.

I rated the remaining entries as 7/10 on "aroma" as my sense of smell was totally out of commission too.

[BikeWriter]

1. I made a big pot of Chili Verde a couple of weeks ago...

I used about a pound of roasted Poblano and Anaheim peppers and left most of the seeds in. It was hot enough to be interesting. :9

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Hey BikeWriter, glad to see you back on the board. There was a "white"

chili entry, with white beans and chicken as the meat. Okay, but not really to my taste, also with no "fire" to it.

Someone did a "Frito pie" treatment with Fritos in the chili, but what was really missing was a Cinncinati style with spaghetti...

:hi:

[BikeWriter]

3. Thanks, Pard. I'm getting hungry for what I call Cajun Chili...

I use lots of shrimp, crab meat, chili powder, and lemon juice and sliced lemons to add some tang to it. This is along with the usual Cajun Trinity of onions, bell peppers and celery, with lots of chicken broth to richen the broth. Try that one sometime.

[BikeWriter]

4. Here's that entire recipe from Demopedia.

Jambalaya with a twist! (Or Cajun Chili)
BikeWriter
Ingredients:

2 loaves of french bread for skillet fried garlic bread
3 yellow Onions chopped fine
4-5 cloves garlic
4 Tbsp. butter or oleo
4-5 large lemons
8-10 Roma tomatos or one large can
1 Small can tomato paste
2 green bell peppers or equivalant amount of Anaheim green chilis chopped fine
Several stalks of celery, chopped fine
3 to 4 cups of rice cooked
2 lbs. of Louisana style andoullie sausage or smoked sausage
2 lbs of cleaned shrimp
1 pound Smoked Ham and/or cooked chicken
1 pound of blue crab claw meat or 6-8 crabs cleaned and halved
2 cans of chicken stock
Add water as needed to the mixture in the latter stages Seasoned Salt, Black Pepper, chili powder, celery seeds, Chop your andoullie or smoked sausage and the smoked ham into cubes.

Saute the onions, celery, garlic, and peppers in a large iron pot with the oleo until clarifying. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken stock. Here's where this Jambalaya takes a twist from the average recipe. Add half a handful or so of of chili powder; if you can't bear to just pour it out in your hand add two or three heaping tablespoons. You may want to add a little more later. Trust me! Simmer this over a medium flame for about 30 minutes while stirring often. Add your chopped sausage and ham and/or chicken to the pot and squeeze a couple of the lemons. Pour several tbsp. of the juice into the tomato mixture and stir and taste. Now you see why we added the lemons! Slice a couple of more of the lemons, deseed them, and add them (with peel) to the pot. Simmer this for about 30 minutes more then add your shrimp, and crab meat. Stir this often until the shrimp are done. Pour a couple of steaming ladles of this over your cooked rice, grab some slices of garlic bread and dig in! I made six gallons of this at a gathering a few months back, and everyone loved it!

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/DU_Recipes:Main_Dishes:Seafood#Jambalaya_with_a_twist.21_.28Or_Cajun_Chili.29

[In_The_Wind]

5. Thank You for the recipe BikeWriter!

[BikeWriter]

7. You're most welcome, Dear...

Everyone I've cooked it for has loved it. I adapted it from memory of a dish Mammaw Boudreaux taught my Mama. She was no blood kin of ours at all, but she sure acted like she was.

[Midlodemocrat]

6. Hey, BikeWriter,

How are you doing?

:hug:

[BikeWriter]

8. Thank you, Dear, I'm still hanging in there...

My Kids and Grand Kids won't let me take the easy way out of this.

[catmandu57]

9. I thought you were going to tell us

not to buy our meat from those chainsaw guys down in texas. The small business man always gets it in the ass.