Chili Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef ( can use 1/4 pork )
- 4 cups water
- 12 oz Chicken or Beef stock
- 4 oz Tomato paste ( unseasoned, see below )
- 1 tbsp Onion powder
- 1 tbsp Chili powder ( make your own - see below )
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 - 1 tsp cinnamon ( depends on freshness, see below )
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Whisk the tomato paste in a large pot with the water and stock.
- Break up the raw meat in the liquid with your hands.
- Add all the seasoning (see note on cinnamon below), stir well.
- Turn on the heat to medium, stirring often.
- Once it comes to a light boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 2 hours, or until desired thickness. Keep stirring often so nothing sticks and burns on the bottom of the pot.
- After 1.5 hours, test for cinnamon, and adjust other spices as desired.
Notes
I'd normally use fresh onion and garlic, but this is more of a meat sauce than it is a proper chili.
If you only have crushed or diced tomatoes, you can puree it a blender and simmer in a small pot until it's reduced to about 1/3, or just puree 2 cups of tomatoes with juice and reduce the water by 2 cups.
Start with 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and taste after 90 minutes. Adjust all the herbs & spices at this time.
You can also sweeten this up with ketchup, and/or brown sugar.