We opened the Oregonian this morning to discover FoodDay has a great cover story with five fabulous chili recipes for your Super Bowl viewing party, including a vegan Heirloom Bean, Kale and Wheat Berry Chili recipe that has certainly caught my attention.

Our clients have also been hard at work crafting the perfect Super Bowl chili recipe and the following is a simple yet extravagant dish using super-charged chipotle sour cream, linebacker-sized chunks of avocado, and humanely raised beef from Organic Prairie.  Enjoy!

* Photo Credit: OrganicPrairie.com

Grass-fed Beef and Black Bean Chili with Avocado and Chipotle Sour Cream

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Chili:

¼ cup olive oil

¼ pound Organic Prairie bacon, finely chopped or ground (to grind, cut into chunks, freeze until firm, then pulse in a food processor)

2 pounds Organic Prairie grass-fed ground beef

1½ tablespoons kosher salt or 1 tablespoon table salt, more to taste

2 cups chopped onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons mild chili powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika (optional)

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (not tomato puree)

2 4-ounce cans mild roasted green chiles

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 cup low-sodium beef or chicken broth

2 tablespoons molasses (optional)

Hot sauce, to taste

Toppings:

1 ripe avocado, diced and tossed with a little lime juice and salt

1/2 cup sour cream mixed with 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chiles (freeze the leftovers)

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until most of the fat is rendered and the bacon pieces are golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Pour off all but around 2 tablespoons of the fat.

Add the beef to the pan, sprinkle on about 2 teaspoons of the salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes, but don’t let the meat get brown and crusty. Scrape the meat from the pan into a bowl; set aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan, add the onion and 1 more teaspoon salt. Turn down the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft and lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, smoked paprika (if using), cumin, and coriander and cook another minute, stirring and scraping so the spices fry slightly in the oil.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, green chiles, black beans, chopped cilantro, beef broth, molasses and remaining teaspoon salt, plus as many shakes of hot sauce as you like. Turn the heat to low, and cook, uncovered, until thickened and rich tasting, 45 minutes to an hour. Add back the bacon and beef and simmer another 15 minutes. Taste and add more salt or hot sauce as needed.

Serve the chili in bowls with some avocado piled on top and a generous drizzle of the chipotle cream.

Cook’s Tip:
Grass-fed beef is generally leaner than conventional beef, which means that you need to take care not to overcook it or it may seem dry, especially if you’re cooking a steak, roast or hamburger. For the ground beef in this chili recipe, drying out isn’t a worry because you’re simmering it with so many moist ingredients – including olive oil and bacon!

About Organic Prairie. Organic Prairie meats are produced by an independent cooperative of organic family farms. We are pioneers of the organic meat industry, who began producing our delicious meats—without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or pesticides—back in 1996. We insisted on third-party organic meat certification long before federal organic standards were established. We were the first in the industry to ban animal by-products from our cattle’s diet. And we played a vital role in shaping federal organic meat certification standards—the strictest in the industry. To learn more about our cooperative, please visit www.organicvalley.coop, and look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OrganicPrairie.

Organic Prairie, the meat division of Organic Valley, makes it easy to have your football chili and feel good about it too.  Their new online store — www.organicprairie.com — offers USDA-certified organic beef, pork, and poultry – including grass-fed organic ground beef — making it easy and convenient to access meat that meets all of your high standards and delivers great taste in the process.

Here’s the scenario… It’s been 2 weeks since you’ve been grocery shopping. Your pantry is bare except for some dried pasta and a few onions. Your fridge is empty, except that last cup of yogurt and some hard cheese. Voila!

You’ve got the essentials for a delicious and inexpensive meal that will blow your mind with simplicity and flavor.

This pasta dish came about when Nostrana Chef and Owner Cathy Whims had an abundance of Nancy’s Yogurt sitting in the fridge, and leave it to the James Beard nominated chef to create a dish that sings to the heavens out of a few humble ingredients. The tanginess of the Nancy’s cultured yogurt, contrasted with the sweet carmalized onion, is then bridged together with a hard cheese like parmesan and freshened up with the spring flavor of chives.

Our local back-to-basics, food and farm publication, Edible Portland, loved Whims’ recipe just as much as we did. And after they published it in their Spring issue, blogs like bread & honey discovered how much they loved it too! This is a recipe that once you’ve tried, you will return to it time and time again.

Edible Portland

Deschutes Brewery’s Buzzsaw Brown was paired with a “Baked Potato with Wild Mushroom Ragu” recipe in the March issue of Food & Wine magazine. Check out the recipe below.