SMOKED CHILI! Finally a technique that yields BGE flavors in my bowl.

Yes, this is the "giant meatball chili" you may have seen.   However...
....if you haven't seen this yet, stay tuned!  It's a fun cook.
If you have seen it, but haven't made it, read on... I'll hopefully tell you what worked, what didn't, and how I'd make it again.
And if you've made it...well then, would love your feedback. 



First, this post gives some good history of the recipe and credit's the originator.  I have to tell you, it's not a recipe, it's a technique.  I would recommend you follow whatever your favorite chili recipe already is...  beans or no beans, veggies or none, hot or mild... make it how you like it with only one major difference;
1) Mix all your spices in with the meat and shape into a giant ball that you'll slow cook over your pot.  
That's it.   Ignore the rest of the recipes as you already know what kind of chili you like, so just make that, and see how this technique varies the results. 

So, that said, the only variation on my normal recipe was that I put a few peppers in, when I usually skip those.  I didn't follow either of the linked recipes otherwise because I don't like that many veggies or that many beans in my chili.   Chili for me is about the meat...and tomato sauce simmered with chili powder and cumin. Onward...

Okay, for the most part these are my ingredients.   There's one pepper of each color in there, a Jalapeno and in the pot is some garlic and a few medium onions.  I sauteed those on the stove before adding to the egg.  I do that because a simmering liquid does not get hot enough to break down the veggies as soft as I like them.  So you have to saute them in a pan before adding your liquids. 
On the meat front, I have 2 lbs. of 80/20 beef, 1 lbs. of chorizo and 1 lbs. of hot pork sausage.

Making the giant meatball was fun.   I was a little skeptical of this part, I admit, because all of my seasonings are going in with the meat.  Now, I think you could split em and still get good results...  add half of your seasonings to the meat and the other half to the pot of tomatoes and such.   But, it did work.

I put the chorizo in as I saw someone mention that in another post.  I was going to put that in instead of my hot pork sausage but then figured... more pork is good!   In the end, I think this made it a little too spicy for my kids, but I loved it.


I would recommend cooking indirect as shown, at 275, until you hit an internal temp on the meat ball of 150.  I was going for 155....left it on long and hit 160.  Results will still good, the meatball after breaking apart was very spicy and flavorful.  And yes, all that flavor somehow worked it's magic into the chili!   However, the meat was well done.  No reason to cook this meat ball beyond medium since you are going to plop it in simmering liquid anyway.

Here's the break-apart.  I did have a smoke ring and the bark on the outside was delicious.  I bet you could roll this in some mustard and your favorite rub before cooking for a little extra BBQ goodness.


Okay...this whole method seems to do two things for your chili.
Primarily, you are smoking the meat outside of the sauce so you can now get the great smoke flavoring into the chili!  I could not really achieve this with the normal method of just cooking with an open lid on the egg.
Second, you get the juices from the meat, dripping into the pot.  That's good to, but
what about the FAT?

I know....I know...  I'm preaching to an audience that loves the fat.  Me, I like the flavor, but don't like my food to feel greasy.  When I tried the chili off the egg (before I added the meat) it was a bit greasy.  But I rolled with it to see how it'd be after it came off in the end.  The first picture below shows the pot directly off the egg, before stirring.  There is a good bit of fat on top.  I mean, I made this with 80/20 mix so 20% of that meat is fat and I'm sure the pork wasn't much better. 

I skimmed off most of that fat (which only ended up being 4 oz. of measured liquid fat) and the flavor is awesome without the greasy taste.  So, you can do this method without an oily chili.  If you like all that, well then, leave it in.  One less step for you.

Off the egg after an hour of simmering with the broken up meat;



At that point I brought it onto the stove for the last hour.  The egg had done it's magic, and I was able to tend to it easier on a low simmer in the house as I adjust spices and got it ready to serve.  I dumped a can of drained corn in somewhere along the way.  We like it and it let's me squeeze in some more veggies to the kids.  I did not add any salt to this chili.  I've never made chili without adding salt, but it just had a bunch of flavor and didn't need it;



So, what's the verdict?

It's very good chili, and it definitely gets the aroma of egg cooking into your pot.  I think I'll try it this way again without as much smoke.  That's due to balancing tastes of the family with my own...I like the smoke, like most of you.  Kids and wife are sometimes sensitive to it, it's tough to tell.   Here's the thing, just having that giant meat ball slow cooking on it's own will have it absorb so much of the lump flavoring, that you don't need to add much smoke at all.  I'll go with some mild wood next time, if anything.

Total cook time is about 5 hours.   3 hours slow cooking the meat to temp.  Then an hour with the broken meat in it.  Then another hour in the house tinkering and simmering.  

It's a solid chili.  Made this batch for the family.  Will definitely make this for a party some time to get a better feel for mass appeal.  I think it'll be a hit.  Smoked chili!

I'll be happy to post my full recipe if anyone would like it.  I don't use any pre-packaged seasonings.