Texas-Style Chili

Week 200. Late April 2020. The milestone passes in pandemic — no celebration, no fanfare, just the awareness that I have been writing and cooking and becoming for two hundred weeks, almost four years, and the four years have produced: a Korean identity, a Korean kitchen, a Korean community (currently on Zoom), a Korean birth mother search (currently paused), a Taiwanese partner, a shared apartment, and the ability to feed two adults three meals a day from a Korean-Taiwanese pantry without repeating a dish for thirty days. The skills that were identity work are now life skills. The cooking that was self-discovery is now survival. The four years were not wasted. The four years prepared me for this — not specifically for a pandemic but for the general condition of needing to feed yourself, and others, from the resources available, with the knowledge in your hands.

James and I celebrated week 200 by not celebrating — by making the Tuesday kimchi jjigae and eating it at the IKEA table and the not-celebrating being the celebration, because ordinary life in a pandemic is a celebration, and the jjigae is ordinary life distilled into a bowl.

The birth mother search is paused — Korea is managing COVID effectively but adoption agencies are operating at reduced capacity. The active search I filed is on hold. The databases are processing at pandemic speed, which is slow. I have made peace with the pause. The pause is not a stop. The fermentation continues even when you are not watching.

Saturday Zoom: Karen made clam chowder. I made kimchi jjigae. Week 200 and the food is the same and the screen is the same and the love is the same and the pandemic is the same and everything is the same and nothing is the same and the both is the always.

I made kimchi jjigae on our Tuesday, but I want to give you something you can make wherever you are — something with the same slow, layered logic, the same insistence that ordinary ingredients, given time and attention, become more than the sum of their parts. Texas-style chili is that dish for me when I step outside my Korean pantry: no shortcuts, no fillers, just meat and chile and heat built up in a pot the way fermentation builds in a jar. It is not jjigae, but it carries the same argument — that cooking carefully, week after week, is how you survive the weeks that ask too much of you.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon guajillo chile powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Optional toppings: sour cream, shredded cheddar, sliced jalapeños, white onion, fresh cilantro

Instructions

Sear the beef. Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sear the beef cubes on all sides until deeply browned, about 3–4 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Do not crowd the pan — the crust is the foundation of the flavor.
Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the same pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more until fragrant.
Bloom the spices. Add the ancho chile powder, guajillo chile powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne directly to the onion and garlic. Stir constantly for 60–90 seconds, letting the spices toast in the residual oil. This step builds the chili’s depth — do not rush it.
Build the braise. Return the seared beef and any accumulated juices to the pot. Add the crushed tomatoes, beef broth, and apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Season with salt and black pepper.
Simmer low and slow. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover partially and simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until the beef is tender and the chili has thickened to a rich, clingy consistency. If it tightens too much, add broth 1/4 cup at a time.
Taste and finish. Adjust salt and cayenne. For a deeper, rounded heat, stir in a pinch more cumin. Serve hot in bowls with your choice of toppings.

Nutrition (per serving)

Texas-Style Chili — The Stew That Holds You When the World Won’t