Red Chicken Chili

A number of years ago I decided to get a side of chili with my hamburger instead of fries at one of my favorite pubs, and it completely surprised me. It was easily the best chili I'd ever had up to that point in my life. It was smoky but not incredibly spicy, and had chicken (even though it was a tomato based chili!) and dark red kidney beans and green peppers in it.

I quickly set to work looking for a recipe like it, and tried one from Everyday Annie. With a few tweaks, I was able to get it reasonably close to the restaurant version I so desperately wanted. After making this a bunch and re-trying the restaurant version, I am fairly sure the meat in the restaurant's version is smoked or there are smoked peppers that are less spicy than chipotles/jalapeños in the base, because I have not been able to get the same level of smokiness without it becoming too spicy for me to eat. However, the version below is close enough for me to be happy. It is my go-to chili and has warmed me up on many a cold day. It is less heavy than a beef chili, which I also like.

Notes:

• I have prepared the chicken shredded as well as diced, and I prefer the texture of shredded because it holds onto the soup a little better.
• I cook the onions and peppers until they're really soft because that is how I like them, but feel free to cook them less if you like them a little more crisp.
• If you want your chili to be less spicy, use less of the red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, and chipotle. Add more if you want it more spicy. Add more chipotle for more smoky flavor with your spicy heat.
• My favorite chili powder to use is Penzey's Chili con Carne spice blend since it adds lots of flavor with minimal spicy heat. Your preference may vary based on your level of spicy tolerance.
• If you can't find tomatoes packed in puree, get some that are packed in juice instead. You might also like to add some tomato paste in that case.
• Better Than Bouillon makes a really great tasting chicken soup base.
• If you don't like dark red kidney beans, you can substitute another color of kidney beans, or black or pinto beans.
• This freezes pretty well, though you might need to add a little more water after thawing.
• You can serve it with Greek yogurt, sour cream, crackers, corn chips, and/or grated Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese but it is also tasty on its own.
• *When I buy a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, because I eat so little of it at a time, I blend the entire can in the blender to make a paste, and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator. I generally use about 1 tbsp of this in a batch. Its spiciness diminishes over time but it will keep for a long time (it does not spoil because of the capsaicin).

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RECIPE:

Red Chicken Chili
Adapted from Everyday Annie
Makes about 12-14 cups; serves about 8

1 to 1 1/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp dried Mexican oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups chopped yellow onion (2-3 medium onions)
3 sweet bell peppers, seeds removed and chopped (any color you like)
2 cloves garlic, minced
56 oz (2 large cans) diced tomatoes, packed in puree
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely chopped (or 1 tbsp puree* see above note)
1 tsp chicken soup base
30 oz (2 small cans) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Rub the chicken with 1 tsp olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until chicken has cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Combine chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, Mexican oregano, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Put 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot and set burner to medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add onions and peppers and saute for 10-15 minutes until translucent and very soft. Add garlic and continue to cook another 30-60 seconds, until fragrant. Add dry spices and chopped chipotle, and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes. Pour in the entire contents of the cans of tomatoes (do not drain), turn the heat up to high, and bring the pot to a boil. Add the chicken soup base and stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes, uncovered, to let the flavors blend. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile, shred cooled chicken with a fork or dice into bite size pieces.

When the 30 minutes are up, add the chicken and beans to the pot and stir gently to combine. If you prefer more liquid, add 1-2 cups water and 1-2 tsp soup base if desired. Allow to simmer for another several minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve warm.

Holiday Bakeathon 2018

Holiday Bakeathon, the 5th anniversary! While it's still a long day, I think we've got the process mostly figured out. This year's cookies featured extra fancy decorating with edible glitter and more piping tips. I think I even have a new favorite Christmas cookie (gasp).

RECIPES

• Spicy Gingerbread Cookies (Smitten Kitchen) -- our old standby. I never get tired of how they taste with cream cheese frosting, and we keep coming up with new and/or funny ways to decorate them.
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Cinnamon-Sugar Rugelach
• Decadent Hot Chocolate Mix (Smitten Kitchen)
• Homemade Marshmallows (Alton Brown) -- we cut these into bigger marshmallows for the hot chocolate instead of mini marshmallows to save time. Use the best quality vanilla you can get your hands on, and don't bother with corn starch, use all powdered sugar. They were really good and I was sad when they were gone, so I made another batch and shared them with my work colleagues, who were surprised that you could make marshmallows at home. They taste so much better than store bought. They're also really kid friendly! My colleague's 7 year old daughter absolutely loved them.
• Linzer Torte (Maida Heatter via Smitten Kitchen) -- absolutely amazing, so good I wanted to cry. This is permanently going on my list of must-make holiday treats, whether I make it with my friends or not.
• Hazelnut-Orange Biscotti (Paul Hollywood via BBC)
• Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (Dorie Greenspan via Smitten Kitchen) -- for the chocolate part, we opted for milk chocolate with toffee bits, and I think that was a good choice because they were kind of bitter otherwise.

BAKEATHONS PAST

• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014

Hunter's Pie with Brown Ale Gravy

A couple of friends recently gave us some ground venison that they hunted, and told us to make sure to cook it thoroughly. Normally with good meat I make simple burgers so as to let the meat's flavor shine but that was out of the question with wild game, especially deer. I got the idea to use it in shepherd's pie instead of lamb, and decided to call it hunter's pie instead. They call it cottage pie when you put beef in it, so why not change the name again for venison?

I very loosely based the filling on this shepherd's pie one by Sprig and Flours because I liked the idea of putting beer in it. I say loosely because as with much of my cooking, today I was cooking with the ingredients I already had rather than running to get the exact ones the recipe calls for. Different meat, slightly different vegetables, slightly different ratios of vegetables (I had lots of carrot), different beer (Newcastle brown ale instead of stout), no tomato paste, and I just winged the mashed potatoes.

This was my first taste of venison, and it was a bit different from what I expected! I was expecting it to be kind of like beef. It's more like ground pork in terms of color and flavor, but leaner. I'd use it again in something like this.

RECIPE: Shepherd's Pie with Brown Ale Gravy

Hachapuri (Georgian Cheese Stuffed Bread)

This recipe is originally from Nigella Lawson's cookbook Feast, and is a go-to recipe for my friend Sarah. I have never made it myself, though I have helped her make it a couple of times. She usually makes it for large groups that I happen to be part of, and I'm never mad about that.

This particular day I was helping her cook dinner after a day of promotion tests for the university's  tae kwon do club, where she and my husband met and befriended each other many years ago. This bread was on the menu because people keep asking for it. Nigella describes its appeal quite nicely but I'll also add my own opinions: I love it because it's warm, comforting, and incredibly filling. The fact that it is usually made for me by people I love only adds an extra layer to those feelings.

RECIPE: Nana's Hachapuri

Salt Fat Acid Heat

While I was sick just before Thanskgiving I binge watched this short 4-part series based on the book written by chef, teacher, and author Samin Nosrat. I knew nothing about Ms. Nosrat or this series before I watched it. One of my friends who likes to cook may have mentioned it in passing at some point and then I saw it appear on Netflix, and decided someday I'd get around to watching it.

Overall, I enjoyed it quite a lot. While I knew a lot of the basic information contained in the series, my favorite parts were the insights into the different countries she visited and her personality.

FAT
I hadn't realized this about Italy and it really, really made me want to go there.

SALT
A strong nostalgia for Japan hit me while I watched this. (I spent a school year abroad in Nagoya in college.) At that time, I remember being somewhat concerned about all the salt in the food because American culture tells you lots of salt is really bad for you...and yet the Japanese have a longer life expectancy than Americans. I still don't really know how to reconcile that but I guess neither does health research. I'm still going to enjoy my miso and soy sauce.

ACID
This made me really want to go to Mexico too! I had no idea turkey was so common as a food in the Yucatan. I noticed Samin's Spanish has a lot of Italian mixed in. I also loved that her first reaction to eating something way too spicy was to laugh.

HEAT
It's adorable that Samin got her mother in on this (but it makes a lot of sense, many of us learn to cook and develop our tastes for food from our mothers). The rice dish they make (tahdig) is how my favorite Indian restaurant in town makes their rice, and though I had read about it, it was cool to see the process in action.

Miso Sweet Potato Broccoli Bowl

I am a big Smitten Kitchen fan and lots of things I try end up being go-to recipes for me. I first tried her miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl about a year ago when I needed an idea for all of these ingredients I had on hand and fell in love pretty hard. It's filling and healthy and pretty easy to make. The slightly sweet, salty, nutty dressing has an acidic kick and a bit of heat from the ginger that works really well with the roasted vegetables -- it totally makes the meal. My partner loves it too, which is always a plus. :)

I have no complaints, just substitutions/variations based on what I had in the house at the times I made it, all of which have been pretty good:

Grains and veggies
- brown rice and wild rice for the grain
- winter squashes (butternut, buttercup, kuri) instead of sweet potatoes
- wilted kale instead of broccoli (it cooks faster than the broccoli would so you have to watch it or put it in later than the sweet potatoes)
- sauteed leeks instead of red onions

Dressing
- maple syrup instead of honey in the dressing
- hand mixing the dressing instead of putting it in the blender (only if I'm using the store bought minced ginger/garlic)

Topping
- only one color of sesame seeds instead of both white/black

I agree with her that we need to do more of these grain bowls topped with vegetables and possibly a protein -- every single one I've tried so far has been reasonably good and this is one of my very favorites.

RECIPE: Miso Sweet Potato and Broccoli Bowl

Home Style Applesauce

Apples are one of my very favorite fruits. Every fall I get so excited that I go straight to the orchard in September once Cortland apples are ready, pick more than I can eat, and then come winter I have these soft apples in my crisper that aren't really good for eating fresh or most baking anymore. But one simple, delicious thing you CAN still make out of them is applesauce. This is something my mom would make intermittently throughout the winter for a snack or dessert, though you could serve it on the side of some kinds of meat dishes (pork is a pretty common choice). It was especially nice when we were craving apple pie but weren't quite up to the work and had apples to use up. This is yet another instance where no store bought version can really compare.

The recipe has 3 ingredients -- most any kind of cooking/baking apple, water, and sugar -- and easily scales to the number of apples you have. Cortland is my favorite variety to use, though I've used Regent, Macoun, Northern Spy, and Macintosh apples in recent memory with good results. I do not recommend Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Gala apples, or any really crisp/firm variety.

Important Note: Please do not use Red Delicious apples for this or anything you actually want to enjoy eating. As far as I'm concerned, Red Delicious apples are not food. They were bred to look good and that's about it. Personal tastes aside, they don't really break down in the way that most other apples would when they cook -- they get mealy and grainy, which is not a pleasant texture for applesauce.

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RECIPE:

Home Style Applesauce
serves 4

6-7 medium-large baking apples
2 tbsp granulated sugar, or to taste
1/3 cup water, possibly more depending on preference
Ground cinnamon (optional), for finishing

Peel, core, and slice your apples into a heavy bottomed pot. Add sugar and water (if you need more than 1/3 cup, make sure it's just enough to boil to get the apples cooking on the bottom). Put on medium-high heat. When it boils and steam starts to come up, turn heat to low and cover the pot. Uncover and stir every few minutes to move the uncooked apples on the top toward the heat and to help break down the ones cooking toward the bottom. If it gets too thick and you're worried about it burning, add a little more water. After it's mostly cooked, taste it for sweetness. Add a little more sugar if you think it's not sweet enough. It is done when all the apples are cooked through (you should be able to cut the bigger pieces with a spoon with almost no effort) and the texture is to your liking. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes for me and I like it mostly broken down with some larger pieces still intact. If you like cinnamon, sprinkle it on the hot applesauce just before you eat it. Get you some Penzey's Vietnamese cinnamon for a real treat.

If you need to store it long term, it can be frozen in a plastic bag for up to a year. Just thaw and serve it hot.