I won’t bore you with my feelings on we the little taxpayer bailing out corrupt Big Business – again – but it’s definitely time to economize if we’re going to be able to afford heating oil this winter. This is the time of year that food-wise, it’s easier to economize. It’s soups, stews, and casserole time! And with just a little bit of planning, you can be eating well for a lot less.
Years ago when I worked at UCSF, I enetred a white bean chili in the university chili cookoff. I actually won the People’s Choice Award and we put a bastardized version oif it in the hospital cafeteria. It’s pretty good stuff.
But even pretty good stuff can get tweaked now and again, and when I saw chicken thighs on sale for 99¢ a pound, a recipe started formulating… Last week I had picked up a wide assortment of beans and barley at 79¢ a pound, so I was halfway there.
First thing I did when I got home from the store, yesterday, was grind the chicken thighs with a good chili-textured coarse grind. I had bought about 5 pounds, so I divided it into four packs with three going into the freezer for later…
I then soaked a pound of small white beans overnight.
This afternoon, I was ready to make
Chicken Chili
- 1 pound samll white beans, soaked overnight
- 1 1/4 pound ground chicken
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 green pepper, chopped
- 2 chipotle chilis in adobo, chopped
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp mexican oregano
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 2 cups cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
Cook beans until tender. Drain. While beans are cooking, brown off onion, peppers, and then add chicken and cook through. Add spices and chilis. Add broth, then beans and simmer.
Add about 2 cups of shredded cheese right before serving and top with a sprinkling of cheese and a few corn chips, if desired.
It was tasty, hearty, and filling and the whole batch cost less than $7.00 to make!
And there’s still apple crisp for dessert….. 🙂