Skip to main content
Main

Buzzard's Breath Chili

A spicy chili made with butter, onions, various fresh chilies, lean beef, pork, black beans, tomato sauce, and corn flour.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 20 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Buzzard's Breath Chili

Time1 hour simmer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans and meat

  1. Rinse black beans and soak them in water for a minimum of one hour.

  2. Cube round steak and pork into pieces no larger than ½ square inch.

Brown the meat

  1. Melt butter in a large (8 quart minimum) pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent.

  2. Combine meat with garlic, cumin and oregano. Add this meat-and-spice mixture to the pot with the onions, stirring occasionally for about ½ hour, until meat is evenly browned.

Prepare the chilies

  1. Start to prepare chilies by parching them in order to remove the tough skin.

  2. Caution: Rubber or vinyl gloves are necessary when working with chili peppers. Do not touch the skin around your eyes, nose or mouth while working with the peppers, as the tissue in these areas is extremely sensitive to the chili oil and fumes. When finished, wash hands and gloves well with soap and water. Use baking soda and water, burn cream or aloe to treat discomfort due to burning from peppers.

  3. To parch chilies, rinse and drain them. Pierce each chili near the stem with the sharp point of a knife. For large peppers, pierce a second time near the tip.

  4. Spread chilies on an aluminum foil-covered cookie sheet and broil them rapidly until they brown and blister. Be sure to turn them as they blister.

  5. As soon as they are evenly browned, remove the chilies from the broiler and place them in a cold damp towel (refrigerate the towel for a half hour) and allow them to steam. After 10 minutes, remove the chilies and peel.

  6. To complete chili preparation, pull off stems, then open the chili and remove remaining ribs and seeds. Cut into pieces.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add prepared chilies, tomato sauce, water, black beans and salt. Bring to a boil.

  2. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or until black beans are cooked to taste.

  3. Stir in enough corn flour to achieve the desired consistency.

  4. Cook 10 minutes longer, stirring. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1448Calories
82 gProtein
45 gFat
181 gCarbs

Counts 16 of 17 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 16 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty body, and browning builds savory flavor.
Pork
Adds richer meat flavor and tender texture alongside the beef.
Black beans
Add earthy flavor and body, and their starch helps thicken the chili as they cook.
Corn flour (masa harina)
Thickens the chili to the desired consistency when stirred in near the end.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, forming the base flavor of the chili.
Fresh chili peppers
Supply heat and aroma; parching loosens the tough skins for easier peeling.

The step that matters

Browning the meat until evenly browned. Stirring the meat for about half an hour until evenly browned lets the Maillard reaction develop deep, savory flavors. Meat that only steams turns grey and tastes flat in the finished chili.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, pepper, beef, pork, clove, garlic):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, beef, pork, clove, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes