Beef Brisket Chili With Sweet Cornbread Dumplings

A hearty showstopper of a chili

Keyword Cayenne Pepper

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 2 30

Total Time 2 45

Servings servings

Calories 1051kcal

6 cayenne peppers roughly chopped, seeds and all
2 pounds fresh brisket look for a slab that’s about one quarter fat — cut into handsome bite size chunks
2 yellow onions medium-sized, peeled, halved, and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic peeled and finely sliced
1 pound cherry tomatoes roughly chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground paprika
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce mushroom flavored is always my preference
1 cup strong black ground coffee made as strong as you’d dare drink it
2 cups water
2 cans mixed beans 14-ounce cans, red kidney, cannellini, and butter beans
2 heaped teaspoons ground sea salt
2 heaped teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all the dry ingredients in a good-sized mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, butter, and egg.
Now add the buttermilk mixture to the dry mix and stir thoroughly. Set aside in a cool place while you make your chili.

First, brown the brisket. Heat the olive in a good sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan. The moment it starts smoking, add the brisket chunks in a single, evenly-spaced layer. Don’t crowd the pan – rather do the browning in a couple of batches. Drop the heat to medium-high, and fry the brisket all over for about 5 minutes. You want to get a good dark brown on the chunks - and melt down most of the flavorful fat.
Lift the browned brisket from the pan with a slotted spoon and set it aside on a plate. Keep the pan’s heat on medium high and add the onions and salt. Stir a couple of times to cover the onions with the beefy oil, and let them sizzle away for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, cayenne peppers, paprika, and the sugar to the pan – still on that medium-high heat. Stir well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. You’re looking to get the tomatoes well-softened but not to lose their body completely.
Now add the coffee, soy sauce, water, and black pepper. Stir well and drop the heat to low. As soon as it starts to bubble, return the browned brisket to the pan. Let your chili gently simmer — covered — for 90 minutes, with a few stirs now and again.
Add the beans and let the covered pan simmer away for another 30 minutes. Then stir in the lime juice. Time now for the dumplings.

Use your hands to form the dumpling mix into rounds about 1½ times bigger than a golfball.
Now carefully sit the dumplings on top of the simmering chili. Don’t press them down. Space them across the pan so that they’re just barely touching. Good. Cover the pan and let the dumpling-topped chili cook for another 25 minutes. What will happen is that the dumplings will cook partly in the chili’s sauce and partly in the steam rising from it inside the pan.
Once the dumplings are cooked, serve the beef brisket chili immediately.

Drinks? Has to be an icy-cold, thirst-quenching beer.