The First One

Chicken Chili

I know everyone has been waiting all day to see what I come up with for dinner tonight so here it is....Chicken Chili!

Sort of.
It's my version of chicken chili, anyway.  And it came out good so don't complain that there's no actual chili in it.  And it's healthy, so there.

Here's what I did:

I started with some cooked chicken I had in the freezer from a whole chicken I roasted last week.  I dug around in the fridge and came up with an onion and a green bell pepper.  I found I still had a tomato left over from last week's organic box and some fresh garlic loitering on the counter with nothing better to do.  I had two cans of pinto beans in the pantry and it really just sort of made itself after that.

Ingredients:

An Onion
A Green Bell Pepper
A Tomato
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Cans of Pinto Beans
Some leftover roasted chicken from the freezer
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Salt
Trader Joe's South African Smoke Seasoning Blend (I don't get paid to promote this but I wish I did)
Low Fat Cheddar Cheese (also from Trader Joe's), shredded

First I sprayed a medium pot with a little Canola oil, just to keep the onions and garlic from sticking and burning.  After chopping them up, I sauteed them for a couple of minutes before adding the chopped up bell pepper.  While that cooked I chopped up the tomato and added it to the pot once the bell pepper looked a bit cooked. While the tomato was getting to know everyone else in the pot I chopped up the roasted chicken meat.  Once the tomato looked like it was cooking and releasing some juice I added the chicken.  At this point I added some salt, cumin and coriander and mixed it all in. How much you want to use is up to you, I used about 1/2 teaspoonish or so of each.  Once mixed I added in some of the smoke seasoning blend.  It contains dried red pepper so it's a bit spicy, go easy at first.  You can always add more later.

Next came the hard part.  The beans.  Opening a can is not as easy as it sounds.  Thankfully it went smoothly and there were no injuries.  The two cans were added to the pot along with some water to give everything something to simmer in.  It was about a half cup but its up to you.  Add more if you like it soupier add less if you like it thick.  I don't know how you like your chili.

I put a lid on it and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes at which point I shut off the heat, stirred it all up and tasted it.  And realized I needed to add more salt.  And more smoke seasoning stuff.  And tasted again.  And added a little more, again.

Spooned into a bowl and topped with some low fat cheddar and it tastes great!  To me anyway.  That was the whole point, remember?  To entertain me.  And keep me eating healthy.  And if I entertain or help anyone else along the way it's purely coincidental.
But if you do try it, leave a comment and let me know how you liked it.  Or not.  Up to you.