The great thing about food is that once you learn a technique or really good recipe, it usually sticks with you. Chili is one of those things. While my sister, my daughter, my boyfriend and I were cooped up in the house during the “blizzard” a few days ago I thought, what better to eat on a freezing day than chili?.. alongside the addition of something I can almost ALWAYS do perfectly, corn bread. I wanted to make a different kind of chili because, well I didn’t have any ground beef. I recently made some chicken meatballs with breast meat, parsley, garlic, and Parmesan, so I thought those would be a good addition. I was aiming for a “white chili”, traditionally that just means that your using meat that is not red. I wanted to make it even a little more different so I added some smoked sausage to the mix. This recipe ended up working out so well, that we ate the ENTIRE batch that night- minus one breakfast bowl that my beau had to have.
Here is the recipe for what I will call my: Snowball Blizzard White Chili
(the meatballs are the snowballs! Cute huh?)
1 Large green bell pepper, chopped
5 Long carrots chopped
2 Large cloves of garlic, minced (1 for soup, 1 for meatballs)
1 small or ½ large red onion, chopped
Scant 3-5 tablespoons of oil (olive, canola, veg. etc)
1 regular sized can of Cannellini beans, drained
1 larger sized can of Red Kidney beans, drained
1 wiener of Smoked Sausage, cubed
2 large chicken breasts, cubed
½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 handful of chopped parsley, fresh
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
½ tablespoon of garlic powder
½ tablespoon of onion powder
1 dash of thyme
1 dash of Chipotle Chili seasoning
1 ½ quart of Chicken Stock, store bought OR homemade
Salt and Pepper to taste
Note: This chili is very brothy, I like it that way because the corn bread soaks all that goodness up, if you don’t like corn bread or just want a thicker chili make a basic roux (butter and flour) and add that in and cook a little longer. Also note that the darker the roux the less thickening power it has.
Throw your green bell pepper, 1 clove of garlic, your onion and your carrots into a sizzling pan to begin sweating. Season every layer as you go with kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper. While that is working make you meatballs, if you decided to make your own chicken stock then you would have wanted to start on that about an hour before you brown your veggies. In a food processor, process the 2 cubed chicken breasts, salt and pepper, parsley, garlic, and parmesan cheese. When the mixture wont move anymore in the FP and looks like ground chicken meat than its done. Roll your meatballs into the size of a large marble and throw them and your smoked sausage into the sizzling pan with your veggies. You’ll want to brown the meat on each side and then you can go ahead and add your spices and your beans and finally your stock. Let it come to a boil for about 7 minutes and then let simmer until the carrots are fork tender. Pour over your best corn bread! Bon Apetit!
I cannot disclose my corn bread recipe, kind of a family thing, Sorry!
Unfortunately the corn bread, that I so humbly bragged about before, did NOT turn out well; although it was fine because all we did was crumble it up and pour the delicious chili over it. I accidentally bought all purpose corn meal instead of the usual self rise because I knew that was what you use for pollenta, and I’ve been wanting to try that. I have been making the same corn bread by the same in-my-mind, completely eyed recipe for as long as….well every time I have ever made corn bread EVER! This time I was devastated at what came out of the oven, because it had always been perfect!! I didn’t add enough baking powder and alone, the corn bread pretty much sucked, for lack of a better word. The baking powder got me AGAIN! I can remember trying to bake cakes as a younger adolescent and always having problems with baking powder or soda or just the baking in general…In fact if you keep reading, you are going to see a lot more on baking. I have recently begun admiring pastry and baking a world more than I used to. I am a better than good savory cook and I know that for sure but I believe that the challenge of pastry is creeping its way into my quest, I find myself reading my copy of “How to be a Domestic Goddess”- Nigella Lawson, sometimes just for fun. I made bagels, by her recipe, bagels of which I burnt because I was sitting outside while they were baking, how foolish. I am definitely going to start baking more often, breads, cakes, treats, pot pies, filo and puff pastry (maybe the hardest challenge!! Its so thin!) or whatever my heart desires to bake. I have also been really thinking about fondant lately. I want to learn how to work with it for sure, that could be a great part of the business that I will someday have. I’m hoping it will fall in place as a GastroPub/Bakery if you will? Well fellow food lovers, Ive been writing awhile and I think its time for me to do some cleaning around the house! I hope you enjoy the chili recipe if you try it and keep reading! Toodles!
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