Texas Chili

I am no connoisseur of Texas chili, but I know that it is spicy and there are no beans or veggies getting in there and diluting the beefiness. This chili is from Martha Stewart - she actually has 15 recipes online, most of which look pretty good, but this one is in the print magazine so it's not online yet. The trick to why this one is good is that it uses dried chiles and not chili powder. I have either struggled to find or been to cheap to buy a good tasting chili powder - I am not sure which, but I never have much luck. Martha recommended a mix of ancho and guajillo chiles. The anchos are also called pasilla chiles, which means raisin in spanish. They look and smell like raisins. The guajillos are redder and smooth skinned. Toasted, soaked, and blended together, they make a great base flavor. For the beef I used chuck stew meat. You can see it seize up and get very tough when you brown it. Keep cooking that chili over low heat until the meat relaxes and will melt in your mouth. That's when it's done. Try it! Next on my list is her pork and pinto bean chili.