Brown Sugar Chili Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What does brown sugar do to chili? ›

The real key to great chili however is brown sugar! In fact, brown sugar is what gives the chili a subtle sweetness you never even knew you were missing. With both subtly sweet tones and punches of heat, this Sweet and Spicy Chili, lives up to it's name. It truly is sweet and sassy!

Coffee or Espresso: A cup of coffee can add a rich, earthy depth to your chili. The subtle bitterness of coffee perfectly complements the savory elements of the dish, creating a complex flavor profile.

Dried chiles and whole spices provide a more flavorful foundation than pre-made blends. Keeping the short ribs whole allows for better browning. A long soak in salted water yields smooth, tender, and flavorful beans.

White Sugar and Molasses

Mix one tablespoon of molasses to each cup of refined white sugar to create a substitute for light brown sugar. Add two tablespoons of molasses for recipes that require dark brown sugar.

For an extra tangy, rich bite, incorporate a dollop (or five) into your batch. This is already common practice in many white chili recipes (which, ironically, are often made with green chiles), but a dollop of stirred-in sour cream can benefit red chili, as well.

If you need to balance that sweetness with a little bit of tang, lemon juice's contrasting flavor can do just that, transforming your chili from sweet to spicy and savory.

The best kind of broth can vary: For a traditional chili recipe, beef broth is best, but white chili is better with chicken broth. And of course, if you're making a vegetarian chili, stick with vegetable broth instead. If you don't have any broth on hand, you could also add beer or wine to the pot.

Yellow onion is the most popular ingredient in chili dishes. In fact, over 70% of chili recipes contain yellow onion. Chopped, diced and minced are frequent preparations for yellow onion in chili dishes. Yellow onion is often included in chili dishes in amounts of 1 yellow onion, 1 large or 2 yellow onions.

You can still create a suitable substitute for brown sugar if you have a liquid sweetener like maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, brown rice syrup, or date syrup. Of these, date syrup is your best bet thanks to its caramel-like, almost nutty flavor that's reminiscent of molasses.

What is the closest pepper to chili? ›

Cayenne Pepper: Cayenne pepper, with its intense heat and vibrant red color, is a suitable substitute for chili powder in terms of spiciness. Use cayenne pepper sparingly to add heat to dishes such as chili, sauces, and marinades.

Combining white sugar with molasses may be a better brown sugar substitute, but if you don't have molasses, other liquid sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar will work as well. You should mix a tablespoon or two of the liquid sweetener into a scant 1 cup of white sugar to replace a cup of brown sugar.

Add some sugar to balance the heat and acidity of your chili

When cooking with tomatoes specifically, Cook's Illustrated suggests adding either sugar or baking soda to decrease the acidity of the tomatoes you're cooking with–yet sugar also provides a multi-dimensional complexity of flavors.

Brown sugar is used very similarly to granulated white sugar, but it provides a touch of extra flavor. Since molasses is hygroscopic (able to absorb water), brown sugar and the baked goods made with it retain moisture well. Common uses for brown sugar include sweetening baked goods, sauces, marinades, and even bacon.

Sugar works to counteract the heat caused by capsaicin in peppers so adding a touch of honey or sugar can tone down a spicy dish. The downside is that the sweetness may alter the flavor of your dish so it is best to add a little at a time and taste test it to make sure you maintain a balance between savory and sweet.

Sprinkle in Sugar

Sugar is yet another kitchen staple that can help quell a dish that is a little too hot. Sprinkle in some granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey or maple syrup to get the desired effect and flavor.