5 Things To Know About Cooking Chili

Matt Sheehan, the returning champ, and Alex Dunn, a fellow soccer aficionado, took to the pots to raise both interest in their brand of chili and funds to support the Hillsborough Family Support Group, an organization founded to remember and aid the families who lost loved ones in the 1989 human crush at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield, England.

Ninety-six Liverpool fans were killed and hundreds more injured.

The two chili chefs joined together at a booth at the fundraiser hosted by the not-for-profit Aliquity business group at the Winthrop Pole Barn on March 26.

Their combined chili recipe — “We combined our ingredients and recipes,” Sheehan said — did not take the Aliquity prize this year, and therefore no funds for their designated charity, but the two cooks had a lot of say about what makes chili a great dish.

The winning chili entry, from , was the creation of three families — the Ligoris, the Correas and the Taylors — who opted to give the monies raised to Dogma Rescue.

From Dunn and Sheehan, there’s five things to know about chili:

1. Beans, you mash half of them and keep the rest whole, “to add some consistency,” Sheehan said.
2. Meat, use more than one kind, “or more than one meat style,” like ground beef and chili meat, to add to the dish’s texture, Sheehan said.
3. Powder, add it when the chili is too runny. “Chili is all about consistency,” Sheehan stressed.
4. Cheese, sour cream, chips and Fritos, don’t forget the extras — and the drinks.
5. Fun, don’t forget that’s what chili is all about. “Have fun with it,” Sheehan said. “Don’t care too much,” added Dunn. As Sheehan put it: “That’s where chili started off, everybody throwing in what they had left over.”