Week 5 - Chili

I was happy to see that the Week 5 theme was chili. Falling near the end of January, a hearty bowl of chili would be perfect for a winter night. Originally I thought about remaking a green chili that I made a couple of years ago and liked but never got around to posting about, but in the end decided to make something new based on this white chili recipe by Ellie Krieger on Cooking Channel.

The ingredients for the white chili (as adapted from the original recipe) were:

- 1 tbsp olive oil ($0.20)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.60)
- 1 bunch of celery, chopped ($0.80)
- 3 poblano peppers, seeds and ribs removed, chopped ($0.92)
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped ($0.05)
- ground cumin, about 1 tsp ($0.05)
- ground coriander, about 1 tsp ($0.05)
- paprika, about 2 tsp ($0.05)
- 1 lb of ground turkey ($4.06)
- 2 cans of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed ($1.78)
- 4 cups of water ($0)
- 2 small spoonfuls of chicken bouillon ($0.50)
- dried oregano, about 1 tsp ($0.05)
- 1 can hominy, drained and rinsed ($1.89)
- salt ($0.02)
- plain Greek yogurt ($1.50)
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro, leaves chopped ($0.50)

The total for the chili was approximately $13.02, but it did make enough for dinner and another lunch. The original recipe had cayenne instead of paprika, but we either finished our cayenne and forgot, or it got up and wandered off somewhere, so paprika was the best substitute we had. Probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in the cost though.

The steps for making the chili were:

1. Heat olive oil in large pot, and cook onion, celery, and poblano peppers until soft. [I used celery we had chopped and frozen from an old Costco batch, so it took a little longer as I just threw that in frozen.]

2. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, and paprika, and cook for another minute or so.

3. Add ground turkey and cook. Break up the meat while cooking. [I had a nice laugh at the original recipe saying that it would take 2 minutes until the meat was no longer pink. I have no idea what ground turkey they use, but ours is always still pink 2 minutes later.]

4. Add white beans, water, chicken bouillon, and oregano. Cook partially covered for about 20-25 minutes.

5. Add hominy, salt, and more paprika. Cook partially covered for about 10 minutes.

6. On top of each bowl of chili, add a dollop of yogurt and sprinkle on some chopped cilantro.

We liked this chili and would make it again. Probably not my favorite chili ever, but it was good. Just felt like it needed a little bit of a kick, but that's probably because we had no cayenne. A thought it was a little bit more on the soup side than stew, but that's easily remedied. It was a little different from some of the other chilis we've made before because of the addition of poblano peppers and hominy, so it was also nice to try something new.