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Recipes · Texas Red

Wick Fowler’s Chili

The recipe attributed to Wick Fowler, co-champion of the first Terlingua cook-off in 1967, as published by the chile authority Dave DeWitt on Fiery Foods Central (2015), which presents it as the version Fowler cooked at Terlingua. Fowler’s commercial 2-Alarm spice blend has never been published, so this home version is the closest documented record of his chili.

8 servings · About 2 hours of cooking, plus an optional overnight rest

A stoneware bowl of dark red chili made of cubed beef with no beans, three saltine crackers beside it.

Method

  1. 1

    Brown the beef in a large skillet.

  2. 2

    Move the beef to a chili pot. Add the tomato sauce and enough water to stand about half an inch above the meat.

  3. 3

    Stir in the Tabasco, chile powder, oregano, cumin, onions, garlic, salt, cayenne and paprika.

  4. 4

    Drop in the Japanese chiles and chilipiquins whole, taking care not to break them.

  5. 5

    Simmer for about 1 hour 45 minutes, stirring from time to time.

  6. 6

    About 30 minutes before the end, skim off the fat that has risen to the top.

  7. 7

    Whisk the flour with a little water into a smooth paste and stir it into the pot to thicken. Taste and adjust the salt and seasoning.

  8. 8

    Fish out the whole chiles before serving. If time allows, cool the chili, hold it overnight and reheat it.

  • The source marks the Japanese chiles very hot and the chilipiquins very, very hot. They go in whole and come out before serving.
  • The International Chili Society’s archive of Fowler’s 1970 winning entry lists meat, tomato sauce, water, masa flour and one packet of 2-Alarm ingredients, and states that the packet’s exact contents cannot be released.

Sources

  1. Dave DeWitt, 'Wick Fowler’s Chili,' Fiery Foods Central (2015)
  2. 1970: 2 Alarm Chili by Wick Fowler, International Chili Society winning recipes