Kuma Kitchen - Labour Day Chili & Cornbread

Kuma Kitchen - Chili & Cornbread 

Enjoy the ultimate Game Day meal - while at the campsite! Whether you are watching the game at the campsite, cabin, or at home this newest recipe in our Kuma Kitchen Series will be a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

Chili

1 lb Regular Ground Beef (70/30)
1 large yellow onion sliced
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
18 oz can kidney beans
28 oz can whole tomatoes (or diced)
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 can KUMA Kozy Bear Amber Ale
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 tbsp chili powder
½ cup water (only if needed from reducing too much)

Toppings

Grated cheese
Sour Cream
Jalapenos
Chives
Avocado
Cilantro
Hot Sauce

Cornbread

¾ cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
⅓ cup white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 ¼ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preparation

1. Add the ground beef to a large pre-heated pot. Immediately break the ground beef apart and then leave it for a few minutes before mixing/flipping. We want to develop a lot of browning on the bottom as this is full of flavor.
2. While the beef cooks, prep the rest of your ingredients. Dicing the onion and mincing the garlic. Combining all the seasoning (I do this before leaving on my camping trip and just store in a small container premixed), opening cans etc.
3. Once the beef is browned, remove it from the pot and set aside, leaving any grease in the bottom of the pot.
4. Drop the heat to medium and add in the onions and garlic.
5. Saute just until starting to look translucent, then add in the tomato paste, mixing together and cooking for another 30 seconds.
6. Pour in 1 can of KUMA Kozy Bear Amber Lager, and simmer for 1-2 minutes, mixing to pull all of those browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
7. Add the beef back to the pot, followed by the can of tomatoes, the beans, and your chili seasoning.
8. Stir to combine everything, reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. After about 10 minutes, crack the lid so that steam can escape and the liquid can reduce. From here you can simmer for as long as you want, at least another 20 minutes, or as much as a couple of hours. Watching to make sure you don’t reduce the liquid too far, but if you do you can add ½ cup water to the chili.
9. While the chili simmers make the cornbread.
10. Before my trip I measure out all of my dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) and store them in a jar. 
11. Combine dry ingredients with your milk, vegetable oil and egg. Whisk just until combined. Make sure the egg yolk is fully broken and mixed, and no dry spots remain. Do not over mix.
12. Spray a cast iron with cooking spray, or grease with butter, pour in your batter, cover with a lid (or foil) and cook over low heat until the top is set. About 20-25 minutes, but very dependent on the heat of your stove. 
13. Do not preheat the pan, that greatly increases the chances that the bottom scorches before the top has set. 
14. Once the cornbread is finished, serve warm with the chili.
15. Top your chili with any of your favorite toppings: cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, chives, cilantro, hot sauce, avocado.

Tips

The longer you simmer the chili, the better it gets. Initially you want to crack the lid to let steam escape which will reduce it to the thickness you want, but if it has reduced as much as you want and you want to continue to simmer just keep the lid on.

For the cornbread, monitor the temperature very carefully to ensure you do not scorch the bottom of it. Always error on the side of too low of heat on the burner rather than too high. 

If you do not have a tight fitting lid for your cast-iron pan, just wrap the top with tin-foil (crimping the edges) and cut 4 small slits in the top to let steam escape.

You can also use the same batter to make cornbread pancakes instead!