When my aunt and cousin visited me last weekend, aunt brought me a can of diced tomato (no salt added) and a can of red kidney beans (50% less salt, according to the label) from her/cousin's pantry (I don't think cousin even knew about it), saying maybe I could find a use for them. As soon as I saw them, I thought, "Chili"! But I didn't have any ground beef, so I kept them until I could buy some ground beef.
Then, this week, when aunt called to say they were planning to visit me again this weekend, but don't make any dinner, I thought I will make the chili, but use ground chicken or ground turkey instead of ground beef (because aunt and cousin don't eat beef and I wasn't sure if they eat pork). The store I went to, yesterday, didn't have ground chicken, but they did have ground turkey for $3/lb. Well, the chicken breast strips were $1.99/lb. and I thought that was a better bargain, so I bought the chicken, instead.
Later in the evening, I made the chili. I didn't follow a recipe, as such, but this is what I used:
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1/2 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
1/2 large serrano chili (deseeded and minced; aunt can't eat spicy food, anymore)
approx. 1 lb. chicken breast strips, cut into small pieces/cubed and coated with some of the curry powder
1 can diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 can red kidney beans (drained)
1/2 can corn kernels (drained)
1-2 tsp. dark roasted curry powder (in lieu of ground cumin, etc.; put half to coat the cubed chicken, the remainder to the pan of chili as it cooked)
1 tsp (approx.) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. approx. chili powder
1/2 tsp. approx. paprika
oil (a couple of table spoons) for sauteing
1 1/2 cups (approx) water
1-2 tsp. of chicken bouillon powder
salt (to taste)
 |
| Diced Celery |
I diced the celery fairly finely because, while I like the flavor it adds to a dish, I don't like to eat celery. One can cut bigger pieces of celery to add to the chili if one prefers.
 |
| Diced Onion and Green Chili |
Again, I like the flavor onions give to a dish, but I don't like biting into pieces of onion! So, I cut it fairly small. I deseeded the green chili and added only half of it, because my aunt can't eat spicy food.
I didn't add any garlic, because I didn't think of it! But, I suppose one could add a clove or two of garlic, as well.
What I usually do when I need only about half an onion for a dish is, slice the rest of the onion (after all, the cutting board and knife are already out) and portion it into one or two snack sized baggies and freeze. Then, later, when I want to cook a meal and I don't have fresh onions, or I am in a bit of a hurry, all I need to do is take out one of the bags of onions and add to whatever dish I am making. They can be added in the frozen state, as they are; I've even chopped them up while still frozen (or thaw a bit and then chop).
 |
| Bags of Sliced Onions for the Freezer |
I sauted the cut up chicken, celery, green chili, and onions in a large frying pan in the oil, then, added the diced tomatoes, canned kidney beans, and the spices and cooked it. Halfway through, I added the water and chicken bouillon, because the chili mixture looked too thick to me. Then, it looked too thin, so I fished out some of the pieces of tomato (which hadn't broken down as much as I had expected) and mashed them up a bit with the potato masher and added them back (next time, if there is a next time, I'll know to crush half the can of diced tomatoes before I add them - or buy a can of crushed tomatoes; I also took out a fresh whole tomato if the can of tomatoes wasn't enough, but I didn't need the fresh tomato). Finally, I added half a can of corn, because I thought it would add a little color and I like corn (plus, I didn't have frozen corn and I needed to use up the canned corn).
 |
| Chicken Chili |
I didn't add any bell peppers because 1) I didn't have any, 2) I didn't think to buy any 3) they make me burp! But, I think some bell peppers will be good, too.
Aunt still found the dish to be a bit too spicy, so if I make this dish again for her, I will not add any green chili or chili powder until the dish is cooked and I take out a portion for her. Cousin and I didn't think it was too spicy, but I could taste a bit of the heat from the green chili and the chili powder, so I'd say to adjust the spices to your taste or omit it, altogether.
I don't know if anyone adds carrots to chili, but that might be a possibility and will add a little sweetness to counter the heat.
Initially, I cooked it on high heat (when sauteing) and brought it to a boil after the other ingredients were added; then, I lowered the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I think the total cooking time was about 40 minutes.
I didn't know how much this made, but it made a fairly large frying pan full. I sent some of the leftovers home with aunt and cousin and kept what you see above for myself. I'd say we were able to get 6 servings from it (small bowls); maybe 4 average servings? I didn't sprinkle any cheese over the individual servings. I served it with slices of French bread, but corn bread would have been good, too.
I tried to figure out the costs, but I couldn't do a good job because I used mostly what I had on hand or was given; the only thing I bought especially for the dish was the chicken.
1 lb. chicken breast strips @ $1.99
1 can tomato & 1 can beans (gift from aunt and cousin) but perhaps $1 per can? So, $2 if I had to buy them.
1/2 can of corn, purchased on sale at $.50/can, so $.25
I'm assuming less than $1 for all the rest of the ingredients - oil, spices, chicken bouillon, etc.
Celery was purchased for $.34 for the entire head, and there are more than 10 stalks in the head, so 1 stalk would be less than $.03.
Onions were purchased at $.20/lb, approx. 3 onions/lb, so each onion was a little more than $.06 each and half an onion would be $.03?
Serrano chilies were purchased at $.79/lb. and I generally buy 4-5 chilies for a few cents and freeze them to use as needed.
So, approximately $5.25 to make this dish, including the cost of the cans of tomato and beans. $3.25 if I don't include them, because they were given to me. I could have used less chicken, if I wanted to cut down the cost even more, but I liked the amount I did use. So, I'd say this was a fairly frugal dish to make.
By the way, I do have a slow cooker, and I suppose the chili could have been cooked in it - I did think about it. But, my slow cooker is an old one (a gift from one of my cousins for Christmas 1978 and avocado green! ) and doesn't have a liner that can be taken out for easy washing, so I tend not to use it, except to keep something warm during office pot lucks or the almsgiving, etc. It will get more use if it was easier to wash! I should probably give it away and get a new one with a removable liner (but the frugalite in me protests against that waste of money!). Maybe I'll try cooking the pork rib trimming in the slow cooker.
 |
| "Vintage" Avocado Green Slow Cooker |
Now, I have half a can of corn leftover for something! Maybe I'll freeze it for later.
How do you make your chili? Do you make it with ground beef or chicken?
Anybody else remember the avocado green and harvest gold of the 70s? I hear that they are quite popular with people who like retro designs. Maybe I have a "heirloom" in my slow cooker?
