I wouldn't use flour – I would use Clearjel and it sounds delicious. And I would use canola oil. And because it would be more dense than chicken broth I would extend the processing time to 30". But that's me LOL.

Dede

I have never tried making a roux with Clearjel – but it's worth a shot! Flour is simply the thickener in sauces and gravies and Clearjel is just another thickener, so should work in theory…..

I am not afraid to use some flour in pressure canning but do use Clearjel instead whenever possible and so far it's been very possible. Anxious to hear how this works out and what you decide to do.

dede

Barb, the chili gravy is what some folks call red gravy or enchilada sauce, or several other things, depending just where you might be eating enchiladas.  I found this one while looking around for a Tex-Mex recipe for enchiladas, tried it and found it to be exactly what you'd find served at an El Fenix sort of a restaurant on cheese enchiladas.

And Barb, the only place I have found around here to buy the clearjel is at an Amish bulk foods outlet.  The health food store may have it, but it would probably be in smaller quantity.  An organic market or a Whole Foods kind of grocery probably would as well.

Dede, the roux thing is more than just for thickening because it is browned well before adding any of the other ingredients.  It's a serious part of the flavor of those LA, TX, creole, Tex-Mex funky recipes.  All of which is to say that it's a pretty thin gravy and I'm not at all sure that it would even need any thickening, hence my desire to try canning it first as written before trying the clearjel.  I kinda doubt that toasted clearjel would taste anything like toasted flour!

Pete said:

Dede, the roux thing is more than just for thickening because it is browned well before adding any of the other ingredients.  It's a serious part of the flavor of those LA, TX, creole, Tex-Mex funky recipes.  All of which is to say that it's a pretty thin gravy and I'm not at all sure that it would even need any thickening, hence my desire to try canning it first as written before trying the clearjel.  I kinda doubt that toasted clearjel would taste anything like toasted flour!

I really do know what a roux is LOL. No expert but have made a few….. I do know that the browning works better with oil than butter and gives that deep nutty taste. And that the darker the roux the less thickening power it has. You may be right that it won't taste the same. But they are both flours, so it's not out of the running I think. One is from wheat and one from corn and I haven't tried using the cornflour/starch Clearjel yet in this way. Seems worth a shot but not if it doesn't give you the flavor you want and have come to expect. I do think that the seasonings in this will only get better with canning :)

dede

OK – so here's the deal.  Done did it – using change #63 to the ammended plan 40!

Cooked the gravy according the calculations adjusted to make 6 times the recipe.  The theory was that would give us 5 pints to try canning and one pint to make into enchiladas.  Sure sounded easy enough from here!  And it was an opportunity to try out the new stainless steel stock pot.  Yeah, it has a lightweight bottom, but was on sale for a really cheap price.

To start with, the roux didn't really look like a roux, but it smelled right, so we pressed on.  Oh, man, when the spices were added, the aroma was heavenly!  About the time I added the chicken stock it occurred that if this was going to cook for 30 minutes in the pc, maybe I could skip the simmering for 30 minutes step.  Meanwhile, the gravy was tasting just right except for being a little raw and being extremely thin.  So, I added some clearjel after all.  2/3 cup clearjel in 1 cup water, just 'cause it's easier to get mixed up that way.

Made 8 pints with a bit left over.  The taste is fine, except for being a bit on the raw side.  The texture looks OK for what's left over now at room temp.

Two times 6 is still 12, isn't it?  Really, really beginning to wonder about that!  If the original recipe makes more than 2 cups, we could have a problem, Houston!  Will it be enough to make 8 enchiladas?  That what the original recipe said it would do, and did when we used it.  Ah – the mystery continues.

Did you use Clearjel for the roux on this last batch or was it with your flour?

OK – that finally worked!

Will try AGAIN to answer your questions, Cindy!  I made the recipe as originally written.  Either I did something very wrong, or the roux part of it didn't translate well to a larger batch, or something, because it never looked much like a roux.  After it cooked for a while, it started smelling right, so I proceeded with the recipe.  (The times 6 version.)  At the end, it looked too thin so I added the clearjel.

YES, this gravy tastes very much like the chili in a can of chili beans.

And I need to go back up and put in the quantities for a times 6 recipe.

Here we are months and months later, but it took this long to finally open one of those jars from last fall!

We may now call this experiment a success!  The chili gravy WAS even better after sitting around a while in the jar than when first made.  I'm sticking with the recipe with the addition of clearjel minus the cooking time when canning the gravy.  YUM! 

(I may reduce the amount of clearjel somewhat next time.)