Oct 5, 2009

The things you do for Love

Here's the dilemma. One of my favorite meals is homemade chili. And, not bragging here, I make a fucking fantastic chili. But Gia generally doesn't enjoy chili. She will eat the fuck out of mine, because she knows it's the best around (okay...that might be bragging a bit). But if she had her druthers, she would rather pass on chili all together.  A positions I am firmly against, by the way.

But I wanted to make chili this weekend, and I also wanted to make something that Gia was really gonna love. So...

GIA'S FAVORITE CHILI RECIPE

I did it. I concocted a chili that had Gia sobbing for more. Or she would have been sobbing had we not been so full. I'm not sure any of that makes sense. Let's move on.

I decided to go all green and white for this batch of chili.  No red whatsoever.  Tomatillos instead of tomatoes. Green sweet peppers, celery, limes, cilantro and green chilies. White onions, chicken meat and white beans.  Here's how you do it:

Ingredients

2 pounds ground chicken
1 pound chicken sausage - removed from casing
1 pound dried small white beans
1 large can (24 oz) tomatillos - drained and shredded
4 large sweet Italian peppers (light green, looks like a big chili)
4 green chili peppers
2 large white Spanish onions
8 celery stalks
6 limes
1 beer - lager
1 or 2 batches of cilantro - just the leaves...chopped
1.5 tbsp white pepper
1.5 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp kosher salt

You can use any kind of chicken meat you want in any combination.  I thought that shredded or pulled chicken would go nicely with this recipe.  Maybe next time.  But I chose ground chicken meat and some chicken sausage out of the casing for this batch.  Also you can use fresh tomatillos if you can find them.  I went to three specialty markets this morning looking for fresh tomatillos and I was shit out of luck.  So I went with the canned variety.  Worked fine.  Also, I love me some cilantro.  So I used an entire bunch in the chili and some more in the rice.  Because cilantro = big fucking win!

Preparation
  1. Soak the beans either overnight in cold water or do a quick soak per the instructions on the bag.  Cook soaked beans in an appropriate amount of water for an hour and a half or until almost tender.
  2. Dice the onions, celery and peppers and saute in a large stock pot with a little vegetable oil until the onions are translucent.
  3. Add the tomatillos (I ripped them apart by handGrrr!), spices, cilantro, the juice from four (4) of the limes and the beer and heat until a slow boil occurs.  Reduce heat and cover.
  4. Brown the ground chicken and the sausage meat (removed from the casing), drain and add to stock pot with all the vegetables.
  5. Simmer for about an hour and a half on low heat. 
  6. Add the cooked beans to the stock pot and simmer for another half of an hour on low heat.
That's it.  I served it over basmati rice that I prepared with lime zest, salt, white pepper and more fresh cilantro.  Surrounded the bowl with white corn nacho chips and added a generous dollop of sour cream in the center.  Cut the remaining two limes into wedges if anyone wanted more tang.  The resulting dish was tangy, meaty and delicious!  Gia absolutely flipped for it.  So I assume I will be making it again at some point. 

Looking for a photo of it?   Keep waiting.  I'm still waiting for that mind-activated camera.  Sigh.  Here is a picture of a bunch of tomatillos instead.  Because you may have been wondering what the fuck a tomatillo is.


They look like little green tomatos!


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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day.  Like walking in the rain and the snow, when there's no where to go and you're feeling like a part of you is dying!

20 comments:

Mrs. Hall said...

Dang Earl!

Sounds very very yummy..

honest to God I tried to replicate your bowtie recipe and I failed.

Not my fault though.. Well, I sent Mr. Hall out to get the ingredients and instead of bow tie pasta he got 'wacky mac' and in stead of 'pancetti' he got turkey bacon.

guess i'll have to take matters into my own hands this time, trying to replicate this!!

Anonymous said...

That actually sounds like a deeeeelicious chili recipe! I only like GOOD chili...refuse to eat it out of a can or at a fast food joint!

Candy's daily Dandy said...

This is a fantastic twist on chili!

The "sobbing for more" thing has piqued my curiosity.

I must try this.

2abes said...

mr. emerill verdant dude...i love chili, would eat it every day. your new concoction sounds pretty good.

sybil law said...

And you're looking for the answer in her eyes....
GAH! You!
Anyway...
The chili sounds yummy, minus the beans (I hate beans). I'd love to try it without beans!

Verdant Earl said...

Holly - Wow. Turkey bacon instead of pancetta. I think I just threw up a little.

Hilly - Everyone who has every tried my chili (my normal beef and sausage chili) says its the best they ever had. For me, my Dad's chili was the best.

Candy - If you like tang over hot, then this is the chili for you.

2abes - I would eat chili every day too, but the frequent trips to the bathroom would put a damper on my day.

Sybil - My normal chili recipe is a Texas chili, and there ain't no beans in Texas chili. But since I was going with the green and white theme here, I thought what the hell.

hello haha narf said...

i'm not a fan of sausage, however i would make an exception for your chili...it sounds spectacular. love me a good bowl of chili. especially if there is a bottle of frank's red hot around. yum!

Verdant Earl said...

Becky - There are too many jokes that I could write with the "not a fan of sausage" line, but I'll pass. ;) And chicken sausage isn't really sausage anyway. It's just chicken meat with some spices to jazz it up. I usually go with Frank's when adding extra heat to my chili, but since this was a green and white chili I went with Tabasco's green jalepeno sauce. See? :)

hello haha narf said...

wow. see what staying up late watching football and drinking with smoking hot 25 year old boys does to a girl?

on a totally different note, you reminded me of a polka i heard once that had the refrain "she likes kielbasa better than fish, yeah!"
ha!
(it should be noted that i was in a classic 1969 buick skylark convertible that only had the original am radio. sunday morning drives were usually filled with polkas or bluegrass.)

Slyde said...

i remember the days of wine and roses, when you used to cook chili for me in bed on lazy sunday afternoons......

Heff said...

CHICKEN ? NO !!!!

Hey, just kidding. It sounds great.

Verdant Earl said...

Becky - I dig the way your brain is working this morning.

Slyde - You can't cook chili in bed. What the hell are you talking about?

Heff - Normally, I would agree. This batch came out delish, though.

Water Logged Canine said...

I wanna lay your chili down in a bed of roses.

Jennifer and Sandi said...

Holy Cow That sounds FAB!

- Jennifer

white rabbit said...

Helpful note for your British readership: cilantro = coriander

:D

Jus sayin

Verdant Earl said...

Doggie - and do bad things to it, eh?

Jenn - thanks!

Wabbit - Generally here in the States we refer to the seeds (or fruit) of the plant as coriander and the leaves as cilantro. The seeds are dried and then ground for coriander powder. It's common in this hemisphere to use the two names because they taste so different. Do you call both the seeds and the leaves "coriander"? Jus askin ;)

Callie said...

Sounds very yummy. The fresh tomatillos wouldn't be a problem for us, as we have a huge monster plant in our garden that doesn't know when to stop giving us tomatillos! Think I'll save this recipe, as I need SOMETHING to cook the damned things in.

Water Logged Canine said...

I wanna make your chili my intern, take it to the movies, and cap the evening by lacerating it with my flesh blade. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that your chili sounds so delicious...oh...and I rape soup.

Verdant Earl said...

Doggie - I thought you were going Tracy Morgan on my ass. "I wanna take this chili behind movie theater and get it pregnant!"

white rabbit said...

'Do you call both the seeds and the leaves "coriander"? Jus askin ;)'

Yup.

Jus answering ;)

Generally, there is a pattern in that the Italian names are used for vearious fruit/veg/herbs in the US and the French equivalents in Britain - eg zucchini/courgette