Seasons 52 Inspired Steak Chili

Seasons 52 is a great restaurant-concept.  It is a national chain that changes its menu four times a year with the seasons.  It also has a biweekly special menu using seasonal (theoretically) ingredients.  Also, all the dishes are 475 calories or less! I first ate at a Seasons 52 one year ago in Miami, FL.  I ate at Seasons 52 a second time here in Indianapolis.  The food on both occasions was flavorful and light, while still being very filling.

This most recent trip, I ordered the Piedmontese Beef Chili.  It was amazing--like a cross between chili, black bean soup, and chicken tortilla soup.  So, Gary did some sleuthing and found this recipe from a Seasons 52 chef in Schaumburg, IL: Three Floyds Buffalo Chili.  Now, this recipe calls for Three Floyds beer (side note: we've been to the brewery for the fabled Dark Lord Day.  Ask anyone who went with us; it was a bust but a funny story to tell!) and buffalo meat.  But the bare bones of the recipe seemed to be what I had at dinner last weekend, down to the cilantro sour cream garnish.  So we decided we must make the chili and yesterday we did.

Instead of buffalo, we used steak.  The recipe called for seasoning the meat and refrigerating over night.  Then, Gary browned the seasoned meat in batches.

Yummy browned steak bites.

 Then, Gary chopped all the veggies.  An onion and many peppers.  He's very good at it.

In action.

 Look how pretty!

Gary  has mastered the fine dice.

 After cooking the onion, peppers, and garlic in the pot, we added 12oz of water instead of 24oz of beer.  I'm sure the beer would have added a good flavor dimension, but 1) I don't like beer, and 2) we only had a Sam Adams chocolate stout on hand--not appropriate for chili.  We then added chicken stock and the beef.  The soup then went into a preheated oven--yes, you read that correctly, the oven--for an hour.  We then added canned black beans and the chili went back into the oven for 15 minutes.  By this time we were dying to eat the chili.  It was a little thinner than the restaurant version, but it tastes amazing.

A little sour cream mixed in and ready to eat!

We had leftovers today for dinner, and it was just as good if not better today after letting the flavors meld more.  Yummmmmm!  A perfect winter soup/chili.