Jason’s Cajun chili
For this year’s OctChiliFest, I decided to do a little experimenting. I am old fashioned when it comes to chili and I don’t like it to get too far away from traditional ingredients. Still, I thought that I could hit a sweet spot somewhere between traditional and fancy. I decided to try something with a Cajun flair using some stock Cajun items, namely sausage and okra. Here is what I came up with:
- One pound of ground Italian sausage
- One pack of Brooks “Secret” chili seasoning – Original flavor
- One can of Brooks Chili Beans – Hot
- One can of Brooks Chili Beans – Hot & Spicy
- Two cans of Margaret Holmes Tomatoes, Okra and Corn
- One jar of Muir Glen organic salsa – Medium Chipotle
- Just a touch of Mccormick’s Cajun Seasoning
As you can tell, this recipe still contains several of the stock items from my Frito Pie chili and is prepared in the same way (the kidney beans are left out, so there’s nothing to drain from the cans – just put everything in, juices and all). I was looking for canned okra on its own, but ran into the Margaret Holmes mix and decided that would work in place of the Del Monte diced tomatoes. The result was a more spicy chili with an interesting taste from the sausage.
I actually put more than just a touch of the Cajun seasoning in at the end, and it ended up changing the flavor of the chili by the time it had simmered a while. I think I would go very light with this seasoning next time or leave it out entirely. Or, it might be worth a try to leave out the chili seasoning pack and use only the Cajun spices on the meat. I’m guessing this would really spice the chili up with a different flavor, but you know I am old fashioned. 