A generous friend of mine sent me 2 containers of Mild Chili Powder from Santa Cruz Chili and Spice Company. I had admired his Chili Colorado and he informed me that he had made it with red chili sauce using this spice.
When I looked it up online to try and mail order, it was $12 for delivery! I didn’t want to pay 3x the cost in shipping, and just figured I’d buy some next time I was in Tucson. Mike surprised me though, and sent not one, but two cartons!
So naturally I needed to make some Chili Colorado asap, got a big chuck roast, gathered up some necessary ingredients, and got started.
Mike had told me that he just followed the instructions on the side of the carton, so that is what I did too. While a tablespoon of shortening was melting I measured out 1 1/2 Tbsp of flour with which to make a roux, as well as 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, a cube of beef bullion, and a cup of the chili powder.
I maybe should have let the roux get browner, but it smelled right so this is how far I went.
All the spices went in, and I stirred it about, and then slowly started adding chicken broth, fully incorporating before adding more. I added 3 cups of broth.
Again, all I did was follow instructions—brought it to a boil, then down to a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring pretty constantly so it didn’t stick. It was that wonderful gorgeous deep red, and I could use this sauce on lots of things, not just with Chili Colorado.
Mike told me he braised some beef chunks and just added the sauce to it after it was fall apart tender, but I decided I would go ahead and braise the beef right in the chili sauce. It looks like I didn’t take any pictures of the process, but all I did was cut a chuck roast into large chunks, coated in flour seasoned with a bit of salt, then browned the chunks and added to the sauce.
After all the browned meat was added I took the mixture to a low simmer, covered it, and let it simmer for two hours.
I had it the next night with some refried beans, salad, and tortillas. I didn’t make the tortillas this time, I did it the old fashioned way and bought them :-)
Labels: Main Dish