Family meals with home cookin’ is essential to making a thick family identity. It’s almost impossible to do otherwise. Happy chatter, healthy food, culinary traditions, a family that lasts. . . what’s not to like?
Over time the ranch and settler families in Arizona and New Mexico developed their own food traditions. Chile beans were especially frequent (another frequent dish: Navajo tacos). Their descendants keep up the tradition with this simple, filling, delicious meal.
This recipe is different from most people call chili, but it has won cook-offs. People love it.
You can easily feed even a big family on this meal.
Cook beans. (Rinsed beans, water, moderate heat). Usually pinto beans, but try appaloosa beans for a pleasant surprise. Add garlic and onions and salt. Don’t drain the liquid.
Cook some hamburger meat. You can make it as meaty as you want, but for authentic flavor don’t do more than 1 lb ground beef for every 3 cups beans, and maybe less. Let your inner thrifty housewife roar. Fatty ground beef is fine. Dump it in the beans. Don’t drain the grease—dump that in too.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ADD “TACO SEASONING” AT ANY STEP.
Add salsa or green chiles or chile powder to taste, or put them out on the table for individuals to add as they like. Put out the salt shakers, you don’t want to skimp on the salt for this meal! Kids who aren’t used to the meal will sometimes like a little shredded cheese. Wean them off over time, the flavor is better without.
Customarily served with fresh bread for dipping. (Serve with a ladle, you want plenty of liquid in your bowl!) You can do without the fresh bread if you want to, but why would you want to?
Its extremely heart and warm on cold days, but we also have memories of eating it on summer Saturday afternoons on the farm. The heat and the salsa would get you sweating and cool you right off.
Some people swear that the chile beans taste better after a day or two. Both ways taste great to us.
Variations: Add lots more hamburger than normal, and keep cooking on a low heat until its all a big meaty mush; its a guaranteed hunger defeater. Or for a special treat, replace the hamburger with equivalent amounts of shredded beef.