Pedernales River Chili

Like any good Texan, I love me some chili! There's nothing better than a big, steaming bowl of chili smothered in cheese with rice on the bottom! yum. My dad has made this chili recipe FOREVER and I always just assumed it was some random recipe until over Christmas when he told me that it was THE recipe of President Lyndon B. Johnson. I didn't believe him, so I googled it and this is what I found: 

"Lyndon Johnson once loved the kind of greasy chili that Sam P Pendergrast cooks. His doctor made him modify the recipe, though, when he suffered a heart attack during his tenure in the US Senate. This became the new reduced-fat version, graciously provided by Mrs. Johnson." From Texas Home Cooking

I also discovered during my research that LBJ always had this available on Air Force One...at all times. I figured if it was good enough for a president (even if he was a democrat, but come on, who WASN'T a democrat in the 60's in Texas?) then it was good enough for this Texas gal!

So on Saturday night this is what we had for dinner! YUM.

The recipe is below:

My modifications were as follows:

- in place of the canned whole tomatoes, I used 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes and drained one of the two cans.
- "comino seeds" is the same as ground cumin
- I used turkey instead of beef, but normally we use venison. it is VERY important that you skim off the top layer while cooking- otherwise it is too greasy.
- I also used the chili powder that comes in the packets in the spice aisle, it's by "fiesta".
-  And I only used 1 lb of turkey because I made it for the three of us, but when my dad hosted a dinner party at my house over Christmas (yes, my parents came to my house and hosted a party for their friends....) we had 12 people I believe and he made two batches of it!


Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy the recipe AND the history behind the recipe!