Few culinary terms are as open to interpretation as “chili sauce,” and when a recipe calls for chili sauce, there is sometimes a huge lot of confusion about what should be added. Chili sauces can be used as a condiment or an ingredient. They can be hot or mild relative to how much chili pepper goes into the sauce. Chili sauce can be categorized as a hot sauce or a tomato-based condiment similar to ketchup or cocktail sauce. Do you see the confusion? The best way to describe Big Mama’s Chili Sauce is as a cross between a tomato-based condiment and a sweet chow-chow. This chunky sauce has a good mix of sweet and spicy, with the heat determined by the type of pepper used. This particular sauce has always been used as a condiment or topping, but I have found it works well as a finishing sauce for ribs, too. Try it in the morning on scrambled eggs or in a breakfast burrito. Use it instead of relish on hot dogs. Add a dose to beans or peas to heighten their flavor.
Turn humble onions into this thrifty yet luxe pasta dinner.
This pasta has some really big energy about it. It’s so extra, it’s the type of thing you should be eating in your bikini while drinking a magnum of rosé, not in Hebden Bridge (or wherever you live), but on a beach on Mykonos.
Serve a thick slice for breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up.
Reliable cabbage is cooked in the punchy sauce and then combined with store-bought baked tofu and roasted cashews for a salad that can also be eaten with rice.
Caramelized onions, melty Gruyère, and a deeply savory broth deliver the kind of comfort that doesn’t need improving.
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
This is the type of soup that, at first glance, might seem a little…unexciting. But you’re underestimating the power of mushrooms, which do the heavy lifting.
A dash of cocoa powder adds depth and richness to the broth of this easy turkey chili.