Chorizo and Brisket Beer Chili
Smoked brisket, sliced chorizo, and a can of pale ale, cooked low in a dutch oven for two hours.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 51
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 125 min
- total time
- 155 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Smoked beef brisket, cubed | 1.75 lb | buy it already smoked, or use leftovers |
|---|---|---|
| Chorizo | 1.75 lb | sliced into coins |
| Red onion | 1 large | diced |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | minced |
| Carrot | 1 | fine dice |
| Celery | 3.5 oz | fine dice |
| Leek | 1/2 stalk | sliced into rings |
| Jalapenos | 2 | diced, seeds in if you want it hot |
| Canned diced tomatoes | 1 can (14 oz) | |
| Tomato passata | 2 cups | |
| BBQ sauce | 2/3 cup | |
| Sun-dried tomato ketchup | 3/4 cup | plain ketchup plus a spoon of tomato paste works |
| Pale ale | 2 bottles (11 oz each) | |
| Beef broth | 2/3 cup | from bouillon and water |
| Brown sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| White beans | 10 oz dry | soaked and simmered an hour in unsalted water, or two drained cans |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Cumin | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. You want steady low heat under the oven for two hours, so plan on feeding the fire.
- Heat the oil in the dutch oven and brown the chorizo coins. Pull them out and leave the rendered fat.
- Cook the onion, carrot, celery, leek, garlic, and jalapeno in that fat until the onion goes soft, about eight minutes.
- Stir in the paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Thirty seconds, no longer, or the paprika turns bitter.
- Add the brisket, chorizo, both tomatoes, BBQ sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, beer, and broth. Stir.
- Set the lid on, pull most of the coals to the side, and hold a low simmer for about two hours. Stir every twenty minutes and scrape the bottom.
- Add the beans in the last twenty minutes so they hold together.
- Taste for salt at the end. The chorizo and the BBQ sauce both bring their own, so it usually needs none.
This is a car-camping chili and it stays that way. Eight pounds of wet ingredients and a two-hour simmer do not go in a pack. The dutch oven earns its weight here: cast iron holds the low, even heat that breaks brisket collagen down without scorching the sugar in the BBQ sauce and ketchup.
The beer is doing more than flavor. Pale ale is bitter and carbonated, which cuts through the brown sugar and the fat rendering off two pounds of chorizo. Beans go in last because they have already been cooked once, and an hour in acidic tomato turns them to paste. Everything else in the pot only improves with time on the coals.
Packing
Chop everything at home and bag the vegetables together. Premix the paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper in one twist of foil. Meat and beer ride in the cooler; canned tomatoes, sauces, and beans go in the food box.
Variations
- Use canned white beans and skip the hour of pre-cooking. Drain and rinse them first.
- Cook it at home the day before and reheat in the oven at camp. Chili is better on day two anyway.
- No brisket? Cubed chuck browned hard in the first step works, but add another forty minutes.
https://petromax.de/blogs/bbqpit/chorizo-brisket-craftbier-chili-aus-dem-dutch-oven