Chicken Chili with Black-Eyed Peas

Fergie, amirite?

No, not those Black-Eyed Peas. I'm talking about the food. The legume. The main ingredient in Hoppin' John. Those black-eyed peas. And they've recently become one of our new favorite foods. As in yesterday. Yup...that recent.

I was whipping up a batch of chicken chili (see an old recipe here) and I usually add some small white beans to the mix. But I happened to see a bag of black-eyed peas right next to them at the grocery. So I says to myself "Self, howzabout you give them black-eyed peas a shot instead." Then the old woman next to me in the grocery aisle gave me a snide look and went in search of manager or security guard. So I moved on.

Cooking the black-eyed peas is as simple as...cooking black-eyed peas. You give them an overnight soak in some cold water, or you can do a quick soak per the instructions on the bag. But that's only if you are one of them lazy sumbitches. You aren't one of them lazy sumbitches, are you?  Then rinse the beans and give 'em a once through to make sure there aren't any stones or anthrax capsules hidden amongst them. Then simmer them in some vegetable broth for around 45 minutes or so. Or until just tender, but not mushy. I used 4 cups of broth for a 16 oz bag of beans. This left the cooked beans in a just a bit of delicious beany veggie broth. Is beany a word? Not beanie. That's a silly cap. Hmm...

Anyway, the beans tasted delicious just as is. Didn't need to add any salt or pepper or anything. Just delicious beans in a light broth. This would have been a delicious meal unto itself. Except...

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 lb mild chicken sausage - removed from casing
• 1 lb fresh tomatillos - cleaned and roughly cubed
• 1 large green bell pepper - diced
• 1 large white onion - diced
• 4 celery stalks (include the leafy part) - diced
• 3-4 jalepeno peppers - seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp green curry paste
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 2 cups chicken broth
• juice of 2 limes

 - Brown the ground chicken and the chicken sausage. Separately or together. It doesn't matter to me and it didn't matter to them. Make sure you break up the meat from the chicken sausage with a spatula or wooden spoon. Set aside.

 - In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil and then add the green curry paste and heat for a minute or so to release the delicious flavor and aroma. Add the green pepper, white onion, celery and jalepenos. Simmer on medium-low heat for a few minutes. Until the onions get a bit translucent. Add the salt, white pepper, red pepper flakes and allspice and give it a give mix. Simmer for another minute or so.

 - Add the tomatillos, cilantro, chicken broth, lime juice and the cooked chicken you had previously set aside. Give it all a proper mix and get a nice little boil going. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for around an hour or so. The tomatillos should cook all the way down and leave you with a thick, delicious green sauce.

 - This is when I would normally say that you should now add the cooked beans to the chili and cook for a bit more. But the chili on it's own tasted awesome, and so did the black-eyed peas. Instead, I served the beans as a side dish to the chili. In the same bowl. Kinda like this:

Not sure what that shadow is there at the bottom. My nose?

Made all with fresh ingredients, this mother-fucker tasted like it was handed down from heaven by the baby Hay-zoos himself. I started alternating spoonfuls at first. One spoon of chili. One spoon of beans. But I was soon just scarfing the whole thing down like a prisoner huddled over the bowl, gripping the spoon like a weapon in case anyone rolled up on me. Yeah...it was that good.

Everyone go out shopping for ingredients and make this over the weekend. You kitchen will smell wonderful and you will most certainly thank me once you have begun putting it in your tummy.

That is all.