Cinnamon and Spice Chili

Hubby made chili.  The guy that sits around watching tv while I cook and who just randomly throws out very helpful cooking tips that he learned from either his mother, or food network, finally left his favorite chair, went into the kitchen and made an amazing dinner.

I know that the picture above does not make this chili look very special, but oh man.  It's so good.  It's not very much at all like traditional chili that you may think of...chunky, with a bunch of beans.  Nope. His recipe is spin off of Cincinnati chili, but much much spicier. Most traditional chili dishes are eaten alone, topped with cheese, onions, sour cream, etc.  This one is just fine, actually really good, on it's own, but sometimes we like to put it on top of things, like this:

Hubby style

My style.

The next night we had some leftover chili...so instead of putting the chili on top of something, we put it on the bottom, and topped it with some delicious cornbread.

I attempted to make this leftover dish before church.  For some reason I had a lot of trouble getting the cornbread to cook all the way through.  I was getting so frustrated because it was time to leave for church and the bread was still not done in the middle!  Arghhh!  So I left the pot in the oven, turned the oven off, and went to church, very hungry.  All throughout church I was just thinking at how mad I will be when I get home and the dang cornbread is still not done.  But alas, my anger was in vain.  We got home, took it out of the oven, and it was perfect!  Oh it was so good.  We will definitely be making this.  very often.  

Hubby's Chili

2 lbs lean ground chuck

4 cloves garlic

1/4 onion

1 or 2 tbsp of olive oil

6-oz can of tomato paste

4-5 cups beef stock

2-3 Tbsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp chili powder (more or less to your taste, we added more)

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

few dashes pepper and cayenne.

Put garlic cloves and onion in a food processor (or you could mince them up by hand).  brown and drain the beef.  Put olive oil in a pot, and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 or 6 mins.  Add the beef to the pot.  Add the stock and spices until mixed thoroughly.  Simmer until cooked through, about 15-20 mins.

Cornbread-topped Chili

Leftover chili (we left it in the same pot it was cooked in)

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

2 jalapeno peppers, deveined, seeds removed and minced.

1/2 cup sauteed onions

1 cup creamed corn (canned)

1 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375.  combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.  Stir both the egg and the sour cream into the dry ingredient mixture.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  (If the batter is really dry, like mine was, add a few tablespoons of milk.)  Pour the batter over the chili.  Bake for 30-45 mins, until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  

And there ya have it. easy peasy.