Quick 3 Bean Chicken Chili and Cornbread

Who doesn't love a good pot of chili?!? Here's my quick cook version with canned beans (instead of slow cook in the crock pot with dry beans). This recipe has the perfect consistency.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 chipotles in adobo sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 28 oz water
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 8 oz can tomato paste
• 1 tsp each salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil on med-high. I love using my Lodge Dutch Oven. Find it on Amazon here.

Chop the veggies.

Add the onion and bell pepper to the dutch oven.

Chop the garlic and chipotle peppers. Chipotles in adobo come in a can in the Mexican aisle. There are probably a dozen or so in the can. Use 2 and freeze the rest. I put them in a Tupperware, freeze, and cut off what I need when I need it.

Add the chipotles and garlic to the pot.

Add the cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper.

Let that saute for about 5 minutes. Add the ground chicken. My chicken is from Homestead Farms.

Add the tomato paste now while the chicken browns. I prefer to add tomato paste before everything else. I think it breaks up better if it sautes in the oil before the crushed tomatoes are added (I do the same thing when I make marinara sauce).

Here's a tip for the paste. Open the top. Then turn it upside down and open the bottom. Push the bottom of the can all the way through pushing the paste out. No can scrapping needed!

Add the crushed tomatoes. Fill the can with water and add the water.

And.....my can opener broke. So my quick and easy chili now required an emergency trip to get a new can opener. I got this one.

And I'm back!

Drain and rinse all the beans. Add them to the pot.

Cover the pot with the lid. Turn down to low. Let simmer for as long as you want. I usually do somewhere between 30 min and 2 hours. Tonight was about 45 minutes.

While it simmers, make the cornbread. I just followed the recipe on the cornmeal bag, nothing crazy. If you want something fancier, here's my cheesy, corny, hatch chili cornbread.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• butter

Preheat the oven to 450. Mix the dry ingredients.

Add the milk, egg, and oil.

Butter a loaf pan. Pour the batter into the pan.

This is my special touch (not in the recipe). I added about 2 tbsp of butter. Just chop and scatter on the top. Bake for 20 minute until the top is slightly golden.

This is colby jack cheese, sour cream, and cilantro for the chili.