From the Channon Test Kitchen ...

Today's recipe comes from Elizabeth, a copy editor, blogger and cook extraordinaire. She shared her recipe for chili, which intriguingly includes chocolate and beer!

Liz's Awesome Chili
About the recipe: Liz calls the recipe "super easy and super tasty." She also notes that canned chipotles in adobo sauce may be too spicy for some people, so it's up to you how to handle the spicy quotient.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 3 or 4 cans pinto beans
• 3 or 4 cans black beans
• 1 or 2 large cans of dice tomatoes
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1 or 2 mild peppers, like poblano
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 square baker’s chocolate
• 1 beer
• 2 tablespoons (ish) of grocery store chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• Pinch of oregano
• A little salt and pepper.
• Consider using some finely chopped dried peppers for deeper flavor. Or, use a single pepper out of a can of chipotles in adobo. But then you may want to use just one jalapeno.

Directions

1. Open the tomatoes, dump them in a vat, and squish them with fingers or potato masher.
2. Open the beans and add them, liquid and all, to the vat.
3. Dice the onions and chop the peppers and garlic and put aside, separately.
4. Brown the ground beef with the spices. Transfer to the vat with a slotted spoon. Keep the fat content sensible by smooshing the meat in the spoon with a spatula before transferring to vat. Greasy chili does not have a lovely texture.
5. Fry the onion in the meaty grease. Mmmm! It’s done when it’s brownish and the bits are translucent. Spoon into the vat.
6. Discard the meaty grease, but don’t wipe out your skillet.
7. Now, turn on the fan, open the window or at least warn the people in your house before you do this: Toast the garlic and peppers in the skillet. You’re done when you’re coughing. Add that to your vat.
8. Now, pour half a beer into the skillet and drop in a square of baker’s chocolate. You’re going for a sort of thick liquid. If the beer boils down too fast, add some more. Maybe you don’t get to drink the rest. Too bad. You’ll live. There’s more in the fridge.
9. Pour your chocolatey beer into your chili.
10. Get it all a-bubble, then turn it down as low as possible and don’t do anything but stir it every now and then for a couple of hours.
11. If you want to be super smart, put a tortilla in the bowls you serve your chili in. You can also consider the possibility of corn bread. Don’t be afraid of sour cream and cheese. Cholula is the hot sauce that has the awesome when paired with this recipe. 

"Don’t mess with any of that cinnamon nonsense. That’s for hipsters and people who watch too much 'Seinfeld.' Enjoy. Put on your sombrero and eat some food!"