You would think as we near the end of May we would be in shorts, tees and flip-flops, but this year Mother Nature has her own ideas, at least here in Ottawa on Tundra!
This morning, my first day without a headset on and eyeballs glued to the three monitors in front of me in quite a while, the weather was in a word – crappy. Like the last couple of weeks I was greeted by cool temperatures, a brisk North wind and rain, buckets of rain. Gee, it kinda felt like I have been teleported in my sleep to Prince Rupert or something!
As I made a hard and fast plan NOT to be in front of my computer all day, and with a bit of a hankering for soup, I hauled out the venerable crockpot (imagine – I have NOT made a jug of iced tea yet this year!). Instead of soup I decided to make a batch of crockpot chili – with my usual twist of course!
I know it is probably heresy but I actually prefer ground chicken to ground beef in my chili and white kidney beans rarely appear in the pantry (MissusBear is not a fan of kidney beans so my usual chili uses black beans). But I digress. Here is my rendition of Blonde Chili in honour of chicken and white kidney beans:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. Ground Chicken
- 2 x 16oz Cans of White Kidney Beans
- 1 x 12oz Can of Pork & Beans
- 1 x 16oz. Can of Diced Tomatoes
- 1 x Onion Rough Chopped
- 3 x Stalks of Celery
- 2 x Carrots Rough Chopped
Spices:
- 2 Tsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tsp Cumin
- 1 Tsp Curry Powder
- 1 Tsp Paprika
- 1 Tsp Sea Salt
- 2 Tbsp Minced Garlic (I like Garlic so you might go easy)
Directions:
- Fire up the crockpot on high to get it warmed up
- Dice the Celery and Carrot and place in the bottom of the crockpot.
- Open and empty the cans of Beans and Diced Tomatoes into the crockpot
- In a medium saucepan on medium-high start sauteing the Ground Chicken
- When there is no more pink showing on the Chicken toss in the Onions and stir well
- Cook for about 3 minutes to start the flavours mixing, then stir in half the Spices above (I generally mix the Spices ahead of time in a bowl).
- Make sure the Spices are well mixed in then add the Garlic, stir it in well and continue sauteing for another 2 or 3 minutes until you can smell the cooking Garlic.
- Add the Chicken, Onions, Garlic and Spices to the crockpot and mix well.
- Add the rest of the Spices to the crockpot, stir well and cover the whole works with the lid.
- Cook on High for about 2 hours then reduce to low for another 2 – 3 hours. My usual cue the Chili is done is when the carrots are soft and flavourful with the Spices.
- Enjoy with crushed tortilla chips in the bottom of your bowl or a crusty bun or slice of bread on the side.