Brisket and Butternut Squash Chili

This is the perfect time for chili. The world’s a mess with election angst, corona spikes and more division than most of us have seen in our lifetimes - so take a few hours and relax into my Bebe’s Famous Chili, it’s probably the thing I do best.

Brisket and Butternut Squash Chili

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Yield: 6 servings

Author: Bebe Clement

Rich and slightly spicy slow cooked brisket chili with bright sweet bites of butternut squash - the perfect fall dinner.

Time

• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 4 hours
• Total: 4 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 lbs brisket, excess fat removed, cut into 1-2 inch chunks
• 1 large (or 2 smaller) butternut squash, diced into ½-1 inch chunks
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 2 TB cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½-1 tsp cayenne powder (optional depending on spice tolerance)
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper
• 2 TB tomato paste
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped + 2 tsp of sauce
• 5 cups beef broth, divided
• Avocado for serving

Recipe

1. Pat the brisket dry and season it all over with lots of salt and pepper. Turn a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot on medium high heat Working in batches, brown the meat all over, about 2 mins a side. Doesn’t need to be perfect. Use tongs to take the meat out and set aside. Turn heat down to med.
2. Add onion to pot with the brisket fat and sauté until just tender, about 3 min. Add garlic and sauté 2 mins more.
3. Add all the spices and stir constantly for 1 minute, so to toast them. Add chilies + sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and 4 cups of the broth. Mix well so spices disperse evenly through the soup.
4. Add the brisket back in, cover and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Simmer for 2.5 hours, stirring occasionally.
5. After 2.5 hours, remove the bay leaves and add your butternut squash. Top up the liquid with the extra cup of beef broth if it needs it. Simmer on low for a further 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. If the chili is more liquidy than you want it, remove the lid of the pot for the last ½ hour.
6. After 4 or so hours of simmering, the brisket should be tender and pulling apart, but not a stringy mess like pulled pork, and the squash should still hold its shape and not be mush.
7. Top with avocado and serve.