Reduction and Deglazing for Chili (Seeking Advice)
Seeking help on a spicy mole chili recipe I have been making. How important is it to:
1) Reduce a small amount of booze (1/2 cup dark beer, 1/2 cup dry red wine) if it is going to be put into a crock pot for 2-3 hours (versus allowed to boil in a deep skillet for 30 minutes).
2) If important to reduce then do you recommend I do this while sautéing the onions? With my last iteration of this recipe I added the dark beer to the skillet containing onions while I was browning the meat (added with tomato paste). This seems to have caused the hamburger to brown into much smaller fragments. Should I instead attempt reduction with the alcohol by itself in a separate skillet? Or attempt a deglazing with the meat and then reduce the alcohol in the same pan?
Caveat: I have very little experience (read, virtually none) with either deglazing or reducing.
9 Comments
Are deglazing to remove the alcohol? Because it won't disappear in the crock pot, just fyi.
The small amount of beer or wine will become part of the chile stew, whether you cook it in a regular pot or slow cooker.
If you DO want to deglaze, first cook must and remove it from fry pan. Then deglaze.
Should be: "first cook meat"
BTW, if you need an alcohol-free stew, replace the beer or wine with broth or grape juice.