How To Make Kevin’s Famous Chili from The Office

All I can think of after I see that scene is... The mess. And like, how did Kevin clean it up before everyone got in there? I did it in one take. I mean, I'm tremendously proud of that. As amazing as they were and how well they had it all planned out, I don't think anybody had really factored in cleaning me. It was everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I'm not going to get too personal, but it was everywhere, OK? So I don't know if we really would have been able to do it more than once. Hi, everybody. It's Brian Baumgartner here. Today, we are making chili from drum roll, please. My new cookbook, Seriously Good Chili Cookbook. We have it's on the cover. One hundred and seventy seven of the best chili recipes in the world. But today we're going to make the very best. We're going to make mine. Of course. To start, we're going to do some chopping. Now, I'm going to be honest about something. Chopping is not my forte. We're going to chop a bell pepper that's green. Then we're going to chop an onion and we're going to chop a couple of cloves of garlic. So in the cookbook, we've got one hundred and seventy seven recipes. They're not all mine. I don't have one hundred and seventy seven of my own. We went to celebrity chefs, chef chefs, some fans submitted recipes that got into the book. Most importantly, we went to the world championship chili cookoff. I did last year. There are world champion recipes in the cookbook. Well, I say nobody ever makes a chili for themselves. You don't make a pot of chili with several pounds of meat for yourself. So I view it as communal, something you do with friends, with family. For me, I started actually when I was cooking for a group. I thought, oh, I'm going to try to make chili. I'd never made it before. This is several years after the scene on the show, the office. I made it and I posted the picture online. People went nuts. People went crazy that I was making chili. The biggest similarity between my recipe and Kevin's recipe, which I have I have tried multiple ways, but the trick truly is to undercook. I'm looking for a translucent onion, which has that real onion flavor, caramelizing the onions, cooking it too long. It really does change the flavor. I'm looking for a combination of flavors that blends together in a very nice way. There we go. There's the garlic and there's the onions. We're going to turn it up. Yeah, so if you don't know how I became the chili guy and why I'm making chili today, there's a scene in the office where Kevin brings in to work a pot of his famous chili, which he says is probably the thing that he does best. Carries it up the stairs. The elevator is broken. And then, of course, spills it all over the floor. I mean, is it a tremendous achievement in brilliant physical comedy? Yes. Yes, it is. But I think that the scene embodies what the office was trying to say. Overall, in the 10 years, 9 seasons that the show was on, it was really about a celebration of ordinary people doing ordinary things and trying their best in very small ways to have small victories. And I think even though Kevin doesn't succeed this year and nobody gets to try his chili, it's really about the trying. All right, I don't want to overcook these. I think those appear to be translucent to me, right? Today, we're using beef. I also feel like it's just as good with turkey, but there's nothing wrong with beef. So we're going to brown this up. We're going to get it just beginning to brown. And then another thing that I am very adamant about is tomato paste. I want to add the tomato paste in while the meat is browning. And I feel like that, again, that really helps tie in all the flavors. There we go. That's a cooking. All right, now I'm going to turn this down to kind of a simmer. I think this meat looks really browned. It looks deliciously gorgeous. Am I right? It looks really good. Are you catching that? And now we're going to kind of add the rest of our stuffs. We're going to add some finely diced tomato, tomato sauce, oregano, ancho chili powder, and some chili powder, and some salt, and some sugar, and some black powder. It's black pepper powder. Combine it all up in there. And again, I did turn it down. We're going to try to simmer this, and then we're going to let it sit. And now, if I were at home, I'd probably let it go a couple three hours-ish and continue to reduce down, bubbling slightly again, and then we may cover it and let it go from there. You know, the great thing about doing shows like this is that, you know, you just continue to watch, and suddenly things are cleaned up. It's amazing how that works. Now, we have been cooking this for quite a while. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about my good friend and yours, cayenne pepper. Now, there's a big discussion in the world of chili about how spicy you want it, how much of a kick. Is it a five alarm chili? I like a little bite. I'm not a big spice guy. I added a little bit during the break. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm going to add a little bit more to that, and we're going to add the beans. I use, always, Bush's chili beans. Now, why? Because it has some chili sauce on it. So most beans, you drain, get the water all out of there, rinse, drain, and have it be done. There is some of their chili sauce that is in the beans, so you open the can and put it all in. That sauce is good. You can get mild, or you can get spicy. Again, if you want to add some spice that way, but don't add the beans until about 20 minutes before you want to serve, because we don't want them to get too mushy. So I've got here some extra chili powder, some extra ancho chili powder, and some cayenne. At this point, things are going to get fun. I'm going to start tasting a little bit, and I can always add a little spice as this continues to go. I have what was referred to as a tasting spoon. I don't have tasting spoons specifically in my kitchen at home, but potato, potato. Oh, it's really good. Um, I think we're pretty good on the spices there, actually. I can taste the cayenne pepper a little bit. Don't mess with hot sauce. Come on. Don't mess with hot sauce. Just add some spice, okay? Take it from me. Cayenne pepper. Pure, simple, delicious, definitely a little spicy. All right, I've tasted it again. I think we're ready here now to serve this up. Delicious looking. And now it's about the toppings. Always good. We've got some onions here. We've got some jalapenos. We've got some sour cream and scallions and cheddar cheese here. I like to keep it a little simple. Me, personally, just a little bit of cheese, just a little bit of scallions. We talk about different regions in the book. Cincinnati chili, they like their spaghetti with the chili on top, beans versus no beans. This is just dad gum delicious. Just a little cheese, a little scallion. As expected, it's incredible. For the recipe, click the link below or just get the book. I promise, there's some great stories. It's very relaxing to have someone just come with a brush to your face. I know. It's hard to describe that experience though of like when you're working on a television show or a movie and that there's just a person touching you at all times, which sounds pleasant. Like by the end of the day, I think you get tired of like the mic and the this and the clothes and the hair and makeup, but. Imagine being a Kardashian, man. Yeah, imagine being a Kardashian.