This recipe will inspire you to rethink your seasoning and your perception of spaghetti.
Crafting a delicious, rich chili requires the ability to improvise with quite a few layers of flavor; that’s just a fact of life. As a dense and multifaceted stew, chili is notoriously amenable to secret ingredients and bold machinations. It’s not rare to eat a chili loaded with cinnamon and chocolate, and it’s just as common to hear about much wackier additions — some people apparently use cigar ash, which is a…choice.
Chances are, you probably have a go-to chili routine or two adapted to your tastes. But hear us out: Digging through a chili recipe can serve as inspiration for further adaptations. Which is why we love Miles Davis’ unapologetically vintage chili recipe.
Miles Davis is perhaps the most famous jazz musician who ever lived — his album, Kind of Blue, is quintuple platinum, after all. As a pioneer of the genre, you could argue that he had enough to focus on without learning to cook. But he did learn, and got so good that we’re still discussing his recipes 32 years after he passed away.
Before you start cooking, you should know that this recipe includes a healthy portion of pasta. This is optional — you can just make the chili — but “chili mack” is a glorious dish that you should embrace if you’re a spaghetti fanatic. Why did Davis use spaghetti instead of the traditional macaroni noodles? We don’t know, but who are we to mess with success?
Additionally, this chili recipe calls for beer, which is a common addition to chili broth. But Davis advises you to just drink the beer (Heineken, specifically), which we would say is optional.
Noodles and booze aside, we love that this recipe includes such specific seasoning. Davis literally lists one, single drop of red wine vinegar among these ingredients, for example. Which is the sort of precision we’d expect from a jazz musician.
Miles Davis’ Chili Mac Recipe
Ingredients
1/4 lb. suet (beef fat)
1 large onion
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground veal
1/2 lb. ground pork
salt and pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin seed
2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can beef consommé
1 drop red wine vinegar
3 lb. spaghetti
parmesan cheese
oyster crackers
Heineken beer
Instructions
Melt suet in large heavy pot until liquid fat is about an inch high. Remove solid pieces of suet from pot and discard.
In same pot, sauté onion.
Combine meats in bowl; season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin.
In another bowl, season kidney beans with salt and pepper.
Add meat to onions; sauté until brown.
Add kidney beans, consommé, and vinegar; simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
Add more seasonings to taste, if desired.
Cook spaghetti according to package directions, and then divide among six plates.
Spoon meat mixture over each plate of spaghetti.
Top with Parmesan and serve oyster crackers on the side.
Open a Heineken.
