My Everthing But The Kitchen Sink Chilis, No Recipes Needed!!
Chili is a very touchy subject in the food world, there are chili cook offs all the time in one place or another. People have secret chili recipes and or ingredients, chili recipes passed down through the years from generation to generation, and so many recipes on food blogs I lost count many years ago. I myself love chili, with beans, without beans, with meats, without meats, white, red, veggie, and so forth. However, for some reason chili was never mentioned or served in my growing up years, no chili was ever consumed by me until later in my life, hard to believe I know, maybe one reason was my mother hated any kind of bean, was not a spice user per se, and my father was a meat and potatoes man, but we survived without it it seems.
My moral of my story is I have no chili recipes to pass down, no secret ingredients to share, so with chili I am a hit or miss cook, I use no recipe and hardly ever the same ingredients go in my chili time after time, except your basic tomatoes and chili powder and cumin, after that I use whatever I find I have at the time I decide I need a chili fix, and have been known to toss in everything in my kitchen except the kitchen sink as the saying goes. I have also served it plain, on or in something through the years, and no topping has never been not good enuf for my chili.
I have had people have my chili and ask me for my recipe through the years, and to their surprise my answer has always been the same, "sorry but I have no recipe" so am I crazy? I think not. My theory has always been chili is a fun recipe to create, a fun meal to eat, and is not rocket science, and has worked for me. Do I sometimes miss not having recipes handed down to me through the years, you bet I do, and some times feel sad too, but in the big picture the bottom line is make chili you love, share it with your friends and family and be happy, that is what is important.
My kitchen sink chili pictured here today has the following ingredients:
A container of stewed tomatoes with peppers, onions, and carrots I froze from my garden this summer
A container of leftover from scratch veggie soup
One 6 oz can of low sodium v8 juice
About 3/4 pound of scrambled ground turkey
A few black Kalamata olives hanging out in my fidge
A pint of my fresh cooked black beans
Two leftover pre cooked chicken drumsticks, whole, tossed in to simmer in the chili
Chili Powder, about 2 Tbsp. or to taste
Cumin, about 1 1/2 Tbsp. or to taste
Roasted Garlic powder, about 1 1/2 Tbsp. or to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Simmered all together until desired thickness, most chili thickens more as it cools.
This I topped with shredded cheese, sour cream and chopped avocado and ate with blue corn tortilla chips
Might sound crazy to the chili connisseur am guessing and some who are not, but to this chili person it was excellent.
Cannot wait to see what I make next time the chili bug hits for me.....
