Healthy Chili: Chicken or Slow-Cooker Vegetarian
Two Tasty Ways to Get the Hearty Zing of Chili Without Red Meat
Dec 7, 2008
Two recipes first, and then while chili simmers you can read a bit of chili history.
Tomatillo Chicken Chili with Southwest Spice
Yield: about 2 quarts
You will need: a heavy large pot or Dutch oven
Ingredients:
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
- 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ Tbsp each:chili powder, ground cumin
- 2 tsp each: paprika, dried basil
- 1 tsp ground dried red (hot) pepper
- ¼ tsp ground oregano
- 2½ cups water
- 4 tsp chicken base
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1½ Tbsp cornstarch
- ½ cup canned tomatillos
- 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles, drained
- 1 can diced tomatoes and juice
- 1 can each: red kidney beans, navy beans or small white beans, drained
- 3 cups cooked chicken (or turkey), diced
- Heat oil in the pot over medium heat. Add the fresh aromatic vegetables and sauté until they are crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes. Stir in all of the seasonings and continue cooking 1 minute more.
- Meanwhile, in a bowl combine the water, chicken base, lime juice, sugar, cornstarch. Stir into the sautéed vegetables.
- Stir in all the canned vegetables and the chicken. Increase the flame to medium-high. Bring to a boil then reduce the flame so that the mixture just simmers for at least ten minutes.
Serve over rice (or spaghetti if you like it Cincinnati-style), or with cornbread or taco-flavored corn chips.
Garnish with your choice of:
- grated cheddar cheese
- sour cream
- avocado wedges
- chopped cilantro
- chopped scallion (green or spring onion)
Spicy Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Chili
Yield: 6-8 servings
You will need: a slow-cooker (crockpot)
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 ribs celery chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 red, yellow or green bell pepper, cored and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 Tbsp each: chili powder, dried basil
- 2 tsp ground cumin, dried oregano,
- 1 tsp each: paprika, freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- 1 can each: red kidney beans, black beans, garbanzos, drained and rinsed
- 1 can whole kernel corn (or 1½ cups frozen), drained
- 1 can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles (or jalapenos if you like more heat)
- 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- salt to taste
Method:
- In a large skillet over medium-high flame, add all of the fresh vegetables and sauté until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the dry spices. Transfer to the slow-cooker on LOW setting.
- Stir in all of the canned vegetables and stock or water. Taste and adjust the seasonings to your taste.
- Cover and cook 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally.
Follow any of the serving suggestions for the Tomatillo Chicken Chili, above.
Chili lovers may also be interested in Cowboy Chili with Steak and Hoppin' John Chili.
If you love chicken, check out these recipes, including:
- Chicken a l'Orange,
- Chicken Chausseur - Hunters' Style Chicken
- Mediterranean-Style Coq au Vin
- Buffalo Wing Slaw
- Chicken with a Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce
- African Chicken-Peanut Soup
- Mulligatawny Chicken Stew
- African Chicken and Peanut Soup
- How to Make Arroz con Pollo - Rice with Chicken
Some History of Chili:
Chili is the Texas state dish and may have originated there. It did not come from Mexico it is only served in a few spots that cater to tourists.
The only chili mythology that predates the Texas versions comes from Native Americans of what is now Arizona or New Mexico. The legend is that “La Dama de Azul,” a 17th-century Spanish nun who fell into trances for that lasted for days. Coming out of one of these trances she is said to have written down a recipe for a dish that called for venison or antelope meat, onions, tomatoes, and chile peppers.
Ironically, Spanish priests would later condemn the passion inspired by chile peppers, assuming them to be aphrodisiacs. They called what we know as chili the “Soup of the Devil.” No doubt, the priest's warnings contributed to the popularity of chili.
On to Texas: In 1731 Spanish King Phillip V, hoping to cement Spain's claim to the region, sent a group of 16 families to form a colony on the site of what is now San Antonio. Historians tell us that the women of the colony made a spicy stew similar to chili.
By 1850, trail cooks pounded dried beef, fat, pepper, salt, and the chile peppers together into a kind of instant chili brick. On the trail they could boil it up with some water rehydrate it.
In the 1860's, cheaply made chili was regularly a part of Texas prison menus. Inmates used to rate jails based on the quality of their chili.
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