There are no beans in Redbones' Texas chili. It's just brisket, onion, and spices, topped with lots of cheese and scallions.
(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)
For the Game
Redbones doesn't just look like fun. With all its pulsing graffiti artwork and cartoon signs for "okra" and its spinning wheel 'o beer, it smells and sounds like fun, too. The soulful, singsongy call of the cook bringing out your lunch can't help but make you choke on your soda with glee.
Chili is so much better when it is served like this: "Chili, baby!"
All of these features are as much a part of Redbones' chili as the food itself. The chili is a standard that's been on the BBQ joint's menu since the doors opened 21 years ago. After countless menu evaluations that have seen dishes come and go, the chili remains simple, hearty, popular.
Redbones' chili is the Texas variety, an unfamiliar version in New England. Where are the beans? The peppers? Forget what you know. This is all meat, a large dose of onion, and some mild spices under melted puddles of cheese and scallions.
This recipe calls for beef brisket, not ground beef. Think corned beef, which is also made with brisket, but a cut that has been cured. What you use in the chili is straight beef, the kind of cut that slowly turns to shreds at the end of low cooking.
Jose Perez, who holds the enviable of title of "Chef and Pit Master" at Redbones, says the Texas chili is perfect for Super Bowl Sunday, because it's so low-fuss that even the cook can watch the game.
Even lower fuss? Buying it straight from Redbones, which will be doing takeout all day. - DARRY MADDEN
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
