Poblano chili

When I first moved to Texas in 1997, I had never experienced peppers beyond the green bell pepper and the canned, pickled jalapeño. Imagine my surprise to discover stores like Fiesta that have a pepper section. My Ph.D. supervisor's husband loves to bbq, and would have us over frequently for brisket. And every meal would include a side of roasted poblanos. I learned to love these rich and sweet peppers. Their flavour is so fabulous.



Imagine how I reacted, when I discovered a recipe for poblano chile in Meat. Yeah. Well, on a cold, winter's night. We had to make it.

8 poblano chiles
3 lb boneless chuck beef
salt
pepper
5 bsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 lb canned tomatoes
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
sour cream

Put the poblanos on a cookie sheet and place them under a screaming hot broiler. Broil until they're nearly black. Turn them over and cook the other side. Really, it's hard to overdo these. You want them to look like this:



It's the only way to get the skin off, and trust me, you don't want the skin moving on to the next step. Having poblano skin in your chili is about like finding bits of saran wrap floating around in your stew.

Place the chilis in a paper bag, and allow them to steam in the bag a few minutes. Then, peel off the skin, and chop and seed the peppers. Set aside.



Chop the beef into nice mouthsize pieces.



Season all over with salt and pepper. Heat the oil.



Sear the meat on all sides to give them that delicious caramelized outside. You want that to travel into the chili.



Remove the meat from the oil and set aside. In a chili pot, sauté the onions and garlic until clear. Add the browned meat, the tomatoes, spices and stir well. Simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat starts to fall apart.



Add the poblano pieces, stir in. Simmer another 30 minutes. Serve in bowls, with sour cream and cilantro to garnish.



Perfect meal on a cold winter night.

By Bbq Dude