Spicy chili, chickpeas and lean ground chicken make this dish so wonderfully satisfying
In Chicago there is a Ralph Lauren Restaurant where we found this cookbook by Ricky his wife featuring their favorite recipes from the Hamptons. I fell in love it because it features quite a few Austrian dishes such as cucumber salad and appelstrudel. This is because part of her family lived in Vienna for a while and she is very fond of the Viennese kitchen.
Here is my adaption:
1 ½ kg or 2 ½ pounds ground chicken
¼ cup vegetable oil, divided
1 red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
½ Mexican chipotle chili or ½ cup any smokey tasting chili sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 tsp ground cumin - Kreuzkümmel
1 tsp dried oregano
300 grams or 1 (5-ounce) can chick peas, drained, rinsed
1 cup chopped scallions
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, and parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the chicken in a little oil for about 8 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and set aside. Drain off any fat. Add a little more oil to the same pan and saute the onion, garlic, carrots and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the peppers, chipotle, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, cumin and oregano. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add the chickpeas and chicken. Continue cooking for 15 minutes longer. Add the scallions and parsley and serve.
I love the richness of the flavors in this recipe and if you cannot find the Mexican chipotle, sometimes you find it canned and have no chili sauce at hand, then use regular chili and some smoked salt, that should do the trick!
All you want to achieve is the cumin (Kreuzkümmel ), chili and smoked taste with the more or less plain tasting main ingredients. This chili freezes well, make double and keep it frozen for the next 3 months and one evening in the fall you will be so glad to reheat it and have a warm meal in minutes.
We ate the chili out of bowls but this presentation is more fun to look at.
Homemade Cornbread is really easy to make and best when eaten right out of the oven
Ricky's corn muffin to go along with the chili:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup low-fat milk
/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 400 F. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine the eggs and milk and mix lightly. Pour the melted butter and milk mixture into the dry ingredients at the same time and mix until just blended. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with melted butter and evenly distribute the batter among the cups to ⅔ of the form. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
Recipe by Ricky Lauren and a bit adapted by me
