Thursday, October 19, 2006

my latest fiery concoction

Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken Chili was a huge hit last night. I made a few modifications:

- I added 1 extra carrot (adding 2 extra carrots would be fine, too). I love to sneak more vegetables into recipes like this.

- I used lean ground chicken breast.

- I cut down on the butter and olive oil.

- I added a 15-oz. can of cannellini beans, with some (but not all) of the liquid drained off. This was a huge improvement over the original recipe.

- I crumbled blue cheese over the top of the chili and skipped making the blue-cheese corn pancakes. I served sourdough bread instead.

3 comments:

Karin said...

I made that before as well and we liked it too. I cut down on the butter and oil too (RR always goes too heavy with the fats IMO) but I will have to try it again with your substitutions. I've been hoping to find a good alternative to red meat chili (my cholestorol is high).

Actually that wasn't me who recommended the book, I've never read it before. But I'll have to read it now too, it sounds like you really liked it! I'll have to go through my personal collection this weekend and recommend some on my blog.

Mia said...

I normally use ground turkey when I use meat. Veggie crumbles are great thogh and most people can't tell the difference. And I would probably add more beans but that is me. What RR calls for is not enough. And yeah, cutting back on the fats is easy. I would just use olive oil myself. I may have to make this recipe and try it out on my brother. (Except I will ake it veg and not tell him. Evil sister!!)

Jodi said...

More beans would probably be great! RR called for NO BEANS, which I found shocking. I like ground chicken breast better than turkey usually. One major exception -- I love to simmer turkey meatballs in pasta sauce in the crockpot (with lots of Tabasco and cayenne).

I use the Smartlean "sausage" crumbles in pasta sauce, and that's always a hit.