Pseudo-Wick Chili

Author: Justin Serves 4+

2 lb. hamburger or other meat	8 oz. can tomato sauce
16 oz. water	4 Tbl. dried onion and garlic
1 1/2 Tbl. paprika	4 Tbl. ground cumin & oregano
2 Tbl. ground red pepper	2 Tbl. salt
1/2 cup ground chili pepper	6 Tbl. "masa flour" (corn flour of some sort?)
1 jar mushroom caps (optional)

Brown meat, and drain off fat. Mix all but masa flour and mushrooms together. Cover & simmer 30 minutes. Mix masa with 1/4 cup of warm water, to make a thick liquid, and add to the chili, along with the mushrooms. Simmer another 15-20 minutes. Serve over pasta.

Notes and Variations

We don't actually make this recipe as described very often. It is actually a reverse-engineered version of Wick Fowler's 2-alarm chili, which can be had at most supermarkets, and frankly, it's easier and not much more expensive to simply buy the packaged version. We figured out the recipe early on, when it wasn't clear whether the brand was going to be around for the long haul, and keep it here for the possible long term.

This recipe makes a reasonably good meat-intensive chili. It's got a slight bitter edge, but we like the flavor. Justin likes it with a dollop of Red Hot (as he likes most Tex-Mex food).

You can use pretty much any meat for this -- we actually usually use turkey. It works particularly well with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. The canonical pasta for it is Ditalini (often called "Chili-Mac"), but any will do.

Sources

The Wick Fowler's package.