Smoked Brisket Chilli with Cornbread

Ingredients

• 800g leftover smoked brisket, cut into 2cm chunks (or 1kg beef chuck, cut into 2cm chunks if starting fresh)
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 3 ancho chillies, stems and seeds removed
• 2 chipotle chillies in adobo, plus 2 tbsp of the adobo sauce
• 500ml hot beef stock
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 large brown onions, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano (Mexican if you have it)
• 1 tsp coarse black pepper
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 400g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 400g tin pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp masa harina
• fine salt, to taste
• 200g coarse cornmeal (polenta)
• 100g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 300ml buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 80g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for the tin

Method

1. If you're starting with fresh chuck, season the chunks generously with salt and pepper before they hit the pan. Heat the oil in a heavy casserole over high heat and brown them hard in two or three batches — don't crowd the pan or water comes out, the meat steams, and you lose the dark crust that builds the chilli's backbone. Set the browned meat aside with its resting juices. If you're working with leftover smoked brisket, skip the searing entirely — the bark is already there, and re-frying it dulls the smoke. Just cut into 2cm chunks and reserve.
2. Tear the ancho chillies into rough pieces and toast them in a dry pan over medium heat for 30–60 seconds a side, pressing down with a spatula until they puff and smell toasty. Pull them the moment you catch a sharp acrid note — burnt chillies turn the whole pot bitter. Tip into a bowl with the chipotles and adobo, pour over the hot beef stock, and leave to soak for 15 minutes until the anchos are soft and pliable. Blend smooth with a stick blender. This is your chilli paste.
3. Back in the casserole, warm the 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers with a good pinch of salt and cook for 10–12 minutes until the onions are translucent and the peppers have softened and started to catch at the edges — that edge colour is sweetness, don't rush it. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant and pale gold. Don't let it go past that — burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter.
4. Stir in the tomato purée, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano and black pepper. Bloom the spices and purée together in the fat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly — raw spices taste dusty, bloomed spices taste of themselves. You'll see the tomato purée darken from bright red to brick. That colour shift is your cue.
5. Pour in the blended chilli paste, the chopped tomatoes and a splash of water to swill out the blender — the liquid is what breaks the tinned tomatoes down so they taste of fruit, not heated tin. Add the sugar, cider vinegar, the brisket chunks and any resting juices. Bring to a gentle simmer, drop the heat to low, cover partially, and cook: 1 hour for leftover smoked brisket (it just needs to relax into the sauce), or 1 hour 45 minutes for fresh chuck (it needs the time to render and go fork-tender). Stir every 20 minutes and add another splash of water or stock if it looks tight.
6. Meanwhile, make the cornbread. Heat the oven to 200°C fan and butter a 23cm cast-iron pan or square baking tin. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and sugar in a large bowl. In a jug, whisk the buttermilk, eggs and melted butter. Pour wet into dry and fold just until combined — overmixing builds gluten and you get cake instead of crumble. Tip into the buttered tin and bake for 22–25 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean. Rest 10 minutes before cutting.
7. When the meat is tender, stir in the kidney and pinto beans and simmer for 10 minutes to warm through. Whisk the masa harina with 4 tbsp cold water to a smooth slurry, stir it through the chilli, and simmer another 5 minutes — the masa thickens the sauce and adds a sweet corn note that ties the bowl to the cornbread. Taste, season, taste again — you want it deeply savoury with a low chilli heat building at the back. Adjust salt now, not at the table.
8. Ladle the chilli into warm bowls. Cut the cornbread into wedges and tuck one alongside each bowl. Set the soured cream, coriander leaves, pickled jalapeños, spring onions, grated Cheddar, diced avocado and lime wedges on the table — squeeze the lime juice over the top of each bowl just before eating, the acid lifts everything you've just built. Let people build the rest of their own bowl. The toppings are the joy of this dish, don't plate them yourself.