Game-Stopper Chili

Lily came up from Norman in August for the Cherokee National Holiday and we went together on Saturday. Walking those grounds with her was different this year—she kept stopping to note things for her research, pointing out how the food vendors had changed over the years, which traditional preparations were being served and which weren't, what the language usage around food looked like in informal vendor-customer exchanges. It was the same event I'd attended for thirty years and she was showing me things I'd stopped seeing because I'd stopped looking freshly at them.

She bought me an Indian taco for old times' sake, which I appreciated. I bought her fry bread with honey. We ate standing up in the heat the way you eat at the holiday, watching people move through the grounds, and she said the food situation in Cherokee Nation specifically was interesting to her because it was both more preserved and more contested than she'd expected from the academic literature.

I said: it's contested because people are still living it. She said: exactly. She said that was why my food journal was actually useful to her work in a way that older ethnographic records weren't—it was a living document, not an archive. I said I wasn't sure I knew the difference. She said: the difference is you're still cooking it and it's still changing.

That was a useful thing to hear. I've been thinking about it since.

Made a big pot of the bean bread that evening for a stomp dance the following weekend. Three hours of work, the house smelling of corn and beans. Lily sat at the kitchen table and took notes and occasionally stirred when I asked her to. That's as close to fieldwork as she's going to get in my kitchen and she knew it and seemed content with it.

The bean bread that evening was for the stomp dance, and it was right for that—three hours of work, traditional preparation, Lily at the table taking notes while the house filled up with the smell of corn and hickory. But the chili I made the following day was for me, a way of staying inside that weekend a little longer before ordinary time came back. If the holiday and everything Lily said about living documents were still sitting with me, this pot of chili was how I kept sitting with them—something communal and slow, built for sharing, the kind of food that tastes better when there are more people around it than just yourself.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min | Total Time: 1 hr 50 min | Servings: 10

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (15 oz each) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Shredded cheddar, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, and green onions for serving

Instructions

Brown the meat. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it apart, until no pink remains, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pot.
Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion and bell pepper to the pot with the beef. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened and the onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Build the base. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, letting it caramelize slightly against the bottom of the pot. This deepens the flavor of the whole chili.
Add liquids and beans. Pour in the diced tomatoes (with their liquid), tomato sauce, and beef broth. Add the kidney beans and pinto beans. Stir everything together until well combined.
Season and simmer. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Bring the chili to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Cover partially and simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the chili has thickened and the flavors have melded. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let the chili rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes before serving. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, and green onions as desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Game-Stopper Chili — The Bean Pot That Held the Evening Together