I love chili. It's got meat, beans, veggies, tomatoes--all cooked together with some spice. It's one of my favorite cold-weather meals.
During a meal of chili early this winter, my husband mentioned that while my chili was fine, it wasn't really one of his favorite meals. I am still surprised--after almost 24 years of marriage--to discover a food preference or non-preference of my husband's. My children's' food likes and dislikes change with the day of the week, hour of that day, and position of the moon. I'm used to that. But if my husband and I were on the OldyWed Game, I would get a perfect score on all the food-preference questions. Or so I thought.
I am not about to give up chili, so I had to think up a way to make it more husband-friendly. There are two things my husband thinks improves almost any meal--the addition of bread and cheese. Now I could just sprinkle cheese on the chili, but I decided to combine it with the cornbread I usually serve as a side dish. I rooted around on the food recipe web-sites and found a cornbread that is meant to be layered on top of chili and baked.
When I make chili for potlucks, people always ask me for the recipe. But it's one of those dishes I just make. There is no exact recipe. For the chili topped with cornbread, I start with one and a half pounds of meat: lean ground beef, lean ground turkey, or sometimes a mixture of half and half. I saute it in a Dutch oven on the stove-top and drain the fat. Then I dice a whole large carrot, a couple of stalks of celery, and one or two cloves of garlic, and saute them in a little olive oil until they are translucent. I do this in the Dutch oven while the meat drains since I am too lazy to wash extra pans.
Then I add the ground meat back to the vegetables and add canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. I start with a large can of basic tomato sauce. Then I add a small can of diced tomatoes. These are great because you can get them with added flavor. I like to make chili with the diced tomatoes with jalapenos. When all of this is mixed together, if there are not enough tomatoes for me (a visual thing), I add another small can of diced tomatoes. This is a matter of preference.
At this point I add one packet of McCormick's Original Chili Seasoning. My family prefers the mild, but the hot version is good too. I also add the water recommended on the packet. Yes, I can add chili and other seasonings myself, but the packet flavoring pulls the dish together. Plus, if I am using only ground turkey in the chili, the seasoning packet makes the meat look darker--almost like ground beef. Then I put the lid on the Dutch oven, and put it in a 350 degree oven for at least two hours. (If I am making just the chili, it goes into a crock pot at this point.)
About half an hour before I want to serve dinner, I mix up the cornbread topping:
- 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Then, using an ice-cream scoop, I mound the cornmeal mixture on top of the chili, put the lid back on the dutch oven, and bake it until the cornbread is done--about 20 minutes. Finally, I sprinkle the top of the cornbread with a cup of grated cheddar and bake it for another five minutes until the cheese has melted. This makes six good-sized servings.
The first time I did this, my husband raved about the chili. I was happy too. I had found a way to adapt the dish to both of our tastes. Soon it will be too warm for chili. I am counting the days.
Now if only there was a way to make me love scalloped potatoes--a dish my husband loves but that I can do without.
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