Texas Style Chili

This is my interpretation of Chili John's recipe, and I believe it's quite similar. I intended to share it last week, but I thought it could be improved with a few adjustments. After preparing the recipe, watching the episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" featuring Chili John's, and dining there this week, I realized that while the recipe is close, it's not entirely accurate. So I made it a second time, and I'll share the recipe and follow it with my suggestions for adjustments.

Ingredients

3/4 lb. suet ( Beef fat) ( my sub, 4 tbs beef tallow)

2 lbs. ground chuck

3 cups water

2 tbs. butter

2 tbs. mexican oregano

2 tbs. ground cumin

2 tbs. cayenne pepper

2 tsp. onion salt

2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 cup chili powder

Spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente

1 14.75 oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained and warmed in a covered pot

Shredded sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese

Sour cream

Scallion, thinly sliced

I would add

2tbs ground thyme

3 Garlic cloves minced

Directions

1. In a large skillet, fry out the grease from the suet and save. Add 2 lbs. ground chuck to the suet grease and brown with the butter. Simmer for 20 minutes. Transfer to dutch oven with 3 cups water and simmer for 2 hours, uncovered.

2. Add all of the seasonings to the meat and simmer for 5 additional hours, uncovered. More water or beef broth may be added as needed. Stir well and serve.

3. Spoon over spaghetti noodles and red beans. Top with shredded Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream and chopped scallion.

Advice

Suet is a hard beef that renders down to produce tallow. Yes, it's best for the recipe, but if you use it, you should skim the cracklings out, add 3 garlic cloves, and mince it together, and return them to the pot with spices. I will be honest. Suet is hard to find, and just using tallow gets you 95% of the way there and is much easier for you.

I also added 2 tbs ground thyme, I'm sure it's there

Also, I have no idea what "Onion Salt" is. I couldn't find it as a substitute I did 2 tbs of Onion powder and 2 tbs of Kosher Salt.