Dean Christakos: Easter Preparations

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April 5, 2007

Easter Preparations

I am getting ready for Easter, which I will be spending in part in Boston and in part in New Jersey. In preparation for Easter celebrations, I've been making some lamb chili, based on a couple other beef chili recipes I've use in the past.

I start off with 6 pounds of lamb meat right on the bone (on sale at Giant, this week!) :

Before I get into details, these are some other ingredients I used:

4 slices of bacon
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons mild chili powder
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
1 large yellow onion
1oz bittersweet (baking) chocolate
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cans beef broth

Details after the jump...

Next, I cut off the fat and remove the meat from the bone, which I chop up into 1/2" cubes. I think this leaves me with about 3-4 pounds of meat:

Then I take four slices of bacon, chop them up, and cook them in a big dutch oven pot:

After the bacon is cooked and crispy, and the bottom of the pot nice and greasy, I saute the onions and then brown the lamb along with the garlic:

I then mix the chili powder, cumin, flour, and cayenne pepper together and sprinkle them over the lamb until it's all covered. Then I add the oregano, 1 1/2 cans of beef broth, salt, pepper, chocolate, and bacon. Let that all simmer for 2 hours partially covered, adding the remaining 1/2 can of beef broth if the original broth has mostly boiled away: