Total time:1 hour, 10 minutes
Servings:8 to 10 (makes 14 cups)
“I’m serious about this stuff,” her character says in a voiceover just before knocking over a giant pot of her precious creation.
Back in 2009, when the scene was shot (in one take, by the way), Baumgartner, an avid cook, had never made a cooking pot.
“It was Kevin who was serious then, but now Brian has definitely developed an appreciation,” he said by phone from Scranton, Penn., where he was signing his new cookbook.
In this book, he shares, of course, “Brian’s Seriously Good Chili Recipe,” which we’ve dubbed “The Office Chili,” along with 176 other recipes from the collection of winners, chefs, bloggers, and fans. International Chile Society. a spectacle. The book also includes fun facts about the dish, a “hot pepper heat scale,” and a handful of QR codes that take you to videos, including one of him making his chili.
“They wanted 100 recipes,” he said of his editor. “I thought, ‘Can we find 100? I do not know.’ Once they started coming in it was just amazing. The variety…vegetarian, vegan, poultry, beef. All different kinds of flavors, chili verde, house chili, texan chili.
Baumgartner’s foray into chili mastery began innocently enough. About five years after the hit sitcom wrapped up its nine seasons, he decided to make a pot of chili. He posted it on social media and “The Office” fans responded enthusiastically.
This whetted his appetite for the stuff, and he started doing what many home cooks do: tweaking, adding a little of this, adding a little of that, and adjusting cooking times until he gets the thick, meaty, bean-filled chili he calls his own.
From developing his own recipe, writing the cookbook, and judging chili cuisines across the country, Baumgartner learned a lot not only about how to make chili, but also about its traditions and appeal.
Here are some of his tips:
This thing with the onions? If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll know that one of the first questions he had to answer was whether he found out if it’s true that “the trick is not to cook the onions.”
“The piece of onion is real,” he said.
“We are not looking for caramelization. I caramelize onions for a lot of different things, but not chili. It really changes the taste. I try to make the onions translucent, then I start adding stuff.
Layer your flavors. He recommends that when cooking a hearty chili like his, the vegetables be lightly sautéed (which makes those onions translucent), then the meat goes in with the tomato paste and cooked until the meat is brown. and the paste darkens. The diced tomatoes and sauce simmer for a long time, stirring occasionally, until about 20 minutes before ready to serve. This is when the beans are added.
The result: a rich, meaty sauce with whole beans intact.
Go for convenience. Unlike Kevin, who roasts his own ancho chilies for his fictional family’s generations-old recipe, Baumgartner uses ancho chili powder. He’s not up the night before chopping fresh tomatoes, like Kevin either. It uses canned dice, as well as canned sauce and paste. And, to enhance the flavor, he adds two cans of beans in a sweet chili sauce.
Enjoy the trip. His chili takes him about an hour to prepare. Other cookbook recipes he tested take up to four hours.
“I like to prepare dishes that take a lot of time. I find it therapeutic in a way. I compared it to golf, which I do a lot. It’s kind of the only time my mind goes away and I focus on one thing for a long period of time. Everything else sort of disappears.
(Baumgartner may not be looking for a one-size-fits-all chili, but if you are, check out this cookbook chili pasta casserole, which can be made ahead and only takes 20 minutes of hands-on time.)
Never stop tweaking. “I love exploring it,” Baumgartner said of developing a chili recipe. “If you take the golf analogy, there is no such thing as a perfect round of golf. It really doesn’t exist. I think my recipe is not finished. I don’t think it’s ever been done. I will keep changing and tweaking it.
Eat lots of peppers. Baumgartner spent eight months trying and testing submitted and selected chili recipes. This is how he filled the pages of his book, but it also helped him improve his game considerably.
“That’s what I loved about going to the World Chili Prep Championship. They had all won a contest and they explained what they were doing,” he said. “I picked up a lot of tips along the way.”
He encourages others to do the same and share their results. He describes the chili world as having a “sharing culture” and chili competitors as “his people.”
“Why do you want it to be good? You want it to taste good because you want people to like it, enjoy it, get together and eat it,” he said. “Chile, I consider very communal. It’s about friends and family.
Last weekend, Baumgartner wrapped up the main leg of his book signing tour at the 55th Annual Chili Cook-off World Championship in Myrtle Beach, SC. Now he’s back to his “Off the Beat” podcast. in which he tells people about moments in their lives that helped make them who they are today.
It’s something he understands well. He initially sought to distance himself from Kevin Malone, not wanting to be pigeonholed, but once the show started streaming on Netflix it developed a cult following, especially during the pandemic. (It’s available now on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, and you’ll find Kevin Malone’s chili recipe embedded in the service’s user agreement.)
“When they started releasing the streaming numbers with ‘The Office’ on Netflix and by any measure you could reasonably calculate, more people were watching ‘The Office’ than any show on TV. It brought that spotlight back on us individually.
“I realized a palpable change once again, walking through an airport, sitting in a restaurant. The show was bigger than when it was NBC’s #1 show. It became, ‘You I can’t just ignore it. It’s not going to go away.'”
And he realized he really didn’t want to. In 2021 he wrote the bestselling “Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office”.
“I really like it,” he said of fans’ enthusiasm for “The Office” and its spice. “It means a lot to me.”
Baumgartner’s topping suggestions are: shredded cheese, sour cream, pickled jalapeños, mashed avocado, and crumbled tortilla chips. We also liked it with chopped red onion.
Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days or freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
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- 1 tablespoon grapeseed, rapeseed or other neutral oil
- 1 medium yellow onion (8 ounces), chopped
- 1 large green bell pepper (7 ounces), seeded and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 pounds lean ground turkey or ground beef (90% lean or more)
- One can (6 ounces) no salt added tomato paste
- One can (24 ounces) no salt added diced tomatoes
- One can (16 ounces) no salt added tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup water, more as needed (optional)
- 4 teaspoons chilli powder
- 4 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
- 2 teaspoons fine salt, more if needed
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more if needed
- One can (16 ounces) Bush Pinto Beans in Sweet Chili Sauce, undrained
- One can (16 ounces) Red Bush Beans in Sweet Chili Sauce, undrained
- Grated cheddar cheese, chunks of avocado, chopped red onion and/or pickled jalapeños and sour cream, for serving (optional)
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add onions, green pepper and garlic and cook, stirring, until onions are barely translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add meat and cook, stirring and breaking up lumps, until still slightly pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook until the meat is cooked through and the paste darkens a bit, about 5 minutes.
Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, if using, chili powder, oregano, ancho chili powder, salt, sugar and black pepper until combined. well mixed, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in beans, cover and simmer another 20 minutes, or until heated through and to desired consistency. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Also, you can add more water, 1/4 cup at a time, if you think the chili is too thick.
Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with your choice of cheddar cheese, avocado, chopped red onion, pickled jalapeños and/or sour cream and serve.
Per serving (1 1/3 cups) based on 10
Calories: 331; Total fat: 10 g; Saturated fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 67mg; Sodium: 699mg; Carbohydrates: 37g; Dietary fiber: 8g; Sugar: 13g; Protein: 25g
This analysis is an estimate based on the available ingredients and this preparation. It should not replace the advice of a dietitian or nutritionist.
Adapted from “Seriously Good Chili Cookbookby Brian Baumgartner (Fox Chapel Publishing, 2022).
Tested by Ann Maloney; questions by e-mail to [email protected].
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