Chili Con Carne

Chili con carne is a robust and rich chili made with beef roast that includes deeply flavored Mexican chilies and spices all simmered together in a stew-like dish. This is a Texas style chili and it's made of mostly beef and chili sauce without lots of added fillers.

It uses a generous amount of browned beef chuck chunks rather than ground hamburger and this really builds up the meaty flavor. Whole dried chilies are used in place of pre-ground store-bought chili powder, and those chilies are toasted in a skillet then soaked in liquid and pureed in a blender to build the base of this hearty chili.

The chili is simmered low and slow on the stovetop for well harmonized depth of flavor and to tenderize the beef.

It's an impressive made from scratch chili that may seem intimidating at first but once you try it you'll see it's easier to make than you'd think.

It's also a tasty change from the original style chili and you may find tasters to love it even more, especially meat lovers! Plus it could just win your next chili cook off!

Want to try a different type of burger next? Go for my Turkey Burgers or Black Bean Burgers to switch things up sometimes.

An Easy Classic Burger Recipe

Burgers have long been a staple food in our family. So I guess you can say we are a typical American family.

Growing up we had them cooked to that hockey puck doneness, overly well, but as a kid I didn't care it was a burger. One thing my mom never got wrong though was that she never used the pre-formed patties. That's burger mistake number one in my mind.

Shaping your own burgers from fresh ground beef will give you a fair superior result.

Helpful Tips

After 20 years of experience making hamburgers I've learned several other things along the way to create the perfect burger:

• Use a high quality bun for the base as this makes up a huge portion of the completed burger. Homemade or bakery fresh is best.
• Go for a good fat ratio within the beef for tenderness (personally I prefer 85%).
• Adequately season the meat with salt, this is a big one people often miss.
• Careful not to overwork the beef as you shape the patties so it's not tough.
• Use a food thermometer to cook to the right temp so it's not undercooked and dangerously rare, or over-cooked and dry and rubbery.
• Preheat pan/grill and maintain that proper temp. Otherwise you'll end up with a pale steamed-like patty or overly charred burger.
• Cook at a fairly high temp without disturbing as it cooks, this helps create a beautifully brown crust. The only way I could achieve this in the oven was to start that pan out super hot and not turn the burger until the end, for one nicely browned side at least.
• Slice toppings fairly thin. For texture and this allows the flavor of the beef shine if we don't go overboard on toppings.
• Toast the buns so they don't get soggy and they hold up better.
• If grilling burgers don't leave them unattended. Grills can have dangerous flare ups if you don't keep an eye on things. You should also be cleaning the fat from the grill regularly.

Over the years I've also tried different things like seasoning the beef to build in other flavors, creating various sizes of burgers, and trying various toppings.

I've settled on simple, and freshest is best but you are always welcome to change things up and go more bold (unique toppings, hot sauce/ peppers, blue cheese, etc).

And of course if you are a cheeseburger fan don't forget to add the cheese after turning the burger (during cooking) for perfectly melty cheesy goodness.

If you are wondering what my personal favorite method of cooking is here it's easily the cast iron stovetop method. But the others are nice for convenience as well and I use all three.

What is Beef Shawarma?

If you’ve never had beef shawarma, you’re in for a treat.! A famous Middle Eastern street food, shawarma is made with chicken or beef that is heavily marinated in oil, lemon juice, and warm spices. Then, it is placed on a vertical rotisserie or spit and slow-roasted for days until it is unbelievably tender. 

Most commonly, it is shaved off and served stuffed into bread with fresh toppings and a drizzle of tahini or tzatziki. However, you can also find it presented as part of a platter along with sides like tabbouleh and hummus. No matter how it’s plated, it’s always incredible and is guaranteed to leave you coming back for more. 

Don’t worry, though. You don’t need a fancy spit to make your own beef shawarma at home. I’ll show you how to create the same bold flavor and tender texture by searing on the stovetop instead! 

Club Chicken Pasta Salad

This is a family favorite pasta salad! It's similar to the taste of a club chicken sandwich meets a ranch salad. In other words it's completely irresistible!

It has all the best flavors including the unmistakable taste of dill, sweet corn, vibrant tomatoes, crave-able cheese, meaty bacon, bone-in cooked chicken, and a rich tangy dressing. And if you want one more summery mix-in you can also include in a buttery avocado.

It makes an extra large batch which is perfectly fitting for a summer cook out of about 12 people, but the recipe can easily be halved as well for a smaller family lunch or dinner (amounts are included at the bottom of the recipe).

Though you'll find it also keeps well in the fridge so you may opt to just make the full batch and have the extra for lunch that's ready to go the following few days.

This chicken pasta salad is chilled and refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day. Plus it's such a tasty upgrade from traditional pasta salad. So much delicious goodness in every serving!

Our Favorite Navajo Tacos!

Think piled high taco salad but even better! These are a Southwestern classic.

Just imagine a pillowy soft yet chewy center encased by a lightly crisp, perfectly fried golden brown exterior. Then it's generously topped with a deeply flavorful browned beef taco filling and all those vibrantly colorful toppings that have a pleasant complementary blend of textures.

People of all ages love them! They are such a simply satisfying taco to say the least.

Try them soon and you'll see why our family has craved them as long as we can remember!

A Quick and Easy Skillet Lasagna Recipe!

This is likely to quick become a new family favorite! It's unbelievably easy to make yet the finished result is undeniably impressive for something so simple.

You get all the flavors of a traditional lasagna with a fraction of the effort. None of that tedious pre-cooking and repetitive layering. And huge bonus - there's not tons of extra dishes!

Let's also not forget you don't even need to turn the oven on. This is a cooked solely on the stovetop.

Which could also be nice if you want free up oven space to bake breadsticks, garlic bread, or roasted broccoli to pair with this.

A classic dish with a updated and simplified, modern weeknight spin. So much to love here, especially that overload of cheese!

Sausage Gravy with Buttermilk Biscuits

Here in the U.S. we often favor those sweet breakfast recipes. There's pancakes, waffles, crepes and French toast all drowning with syrup, then muffins, scones, donuts, sugary cereal, granola, sweet yogurt and even our oatmeal is often sweeter than it need to be.

But what about all those incredible savory options? Bagel sandwiches (with microwave eggs even), breakfast tacos, a loaded breakfast casserole, breakfast hash, eggs benedict and then of course there's the Southern staple biscuits and gravy that deserves more attention.

It's the ultimate homestyle breakfast and just stick to your ribs good hearty food. And when it's made from scratch it's as scrumptious as it gets!

I've shared a simple version here including square cut homemade biscuits (no specialty cutter required). Once baked they're served warm and polished off with a this classic, flavorful sausage gravy. It's a meat lovers breakfast paradise.

Perfect Beef Tenderloin

Yes beef tenderloin is expensive because it only makes for a small percentage of the meat yield from a steer (or heifer), so that rarity along with it's highly sought after demand makes it a pricey cut of meat.

But of course during the holidays it's worth the splurge. It's buttery tender and doesn't get better than this! The tenderloin (or filet mignon when cut into individual portions) has the best texture (it's ruined many cheap cuts of roast for me because it's so superior).

Here we follow a straight forward method to prepare and cook it, it's seriously easy and hard to mess up. It is however almost imperative you have a key piece of kitchen equipment. You'll need a trusty probe oven thermometer (I highly recommend the Chef Alarm I own a few and they work well. Other cheaper options are available online as well).

If you are going to spend that much on a cut of meat you don't want to ruin it. The cook time will vary based on thickness of the roast and desired doneness, so it's best to take out all the guess work and risk and use a thermometer that will monitor the temp the entire time and alert you when it's ready to your desired target temperature.

It's understandable though if you don't already own one and you just have an instant read food thermometer. If going this route you'll just want to start to check the temperature at about 1 hour then continue to closely monitor it, while taking the temp quickly and don't let heat escape the oven for long.

Note that you can purchase beef tenderloin peeled of silver skin and other tough connective tissue that's ready to cook (you'll pay a bit more per pound), or you can peel it yourself and save some money (just keep in mind you'll need a 6 lb roast here rather than 5).

What to Serve with It

If you are wondering what to serve with this, I know this may be repetitive, but everyone seems perfectly pleased by the classic meat and potatoes combo especially over the holidays. Whether it's scalloped potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, a roasted potato veggie blend, parmesan mashed potatoes, or just baked potatoes you can't go wrong with comfort food classics.

Salads and the typical bright greens go well too. Steamed or roasted broccoli, green beans, asparagus, or Brussels sprouts.

And make it a completely homestyle meal with homemade rosemary dinner rolls, then fancy it up with my favorite vanilla bean cheesecake to finish for dessert. I'd call it the perfect meal!

Honey Baked Ham Recipe

A go-to method for spiral sliced ham. In the past I've hated how I'd always ended up with some dry slices, but not here.

I like Cook's Illustrated's method for spiral sliced ham so I used the same method here and just added different glaze rather than the orange maple one they used.

So many ham recipes (at the same weight) are cooked at 375 degrees for up to 3 hours but why? The ham is already fully cooked, it just needs to be warmed through for serving.

Here the ham is first brought up to room temperature in warm water so it heats more evenly in the oven. From there it's wrapped in an oven bag for faster cooking, and moister end result.

And then finally at the end it's unwrapped and coated with the glaze and heated at a higher temperature to help brown and caramelize it a bit.

It's the perfect protein for a holiday feast!

Easy Grilled Steak

Grilled steak is an essential summer food, truly a highlight to the best backyard dinners.

Cooking steak on the grill keeps the heat out of the house and the smokiness outside so it's nice when you've got company to feed.

It's also a great option when you've got a handful of people to serve because of the obvious fact that on a grill there's a lot more space to work with, while indoor pan searing only allows space for cooking 1 to 2 steaks at time.

Just plan a a little bit of extra time to let the steaks rest before you grill them.

Then to complete the steaks you can finish with a classic potatoes side of some sort (these are my personal favorite) and other fresh vegetables to bring some nutrition to the meal (and you might as well grill those veggies while you've got it going). And if you want to go all out serve them with warm dinner rolls and fresh jam like they do at the homestyle steakhouses.