Make me a Meal Monday - Chili

So there are certain recipes that I have always liked my mom's recipe better than anyone else's (chicken salad, potato salad, meatloaf) and CHILI! I am very picky about my chili, I don't like it sweet, I like it with a little bit of heat, but I like a hearty chili. So I called my mom and asked her for her recipe (and of course she doesn't have an exact recipe) but what she had made last time was the following. She also told me it would make enough for 3 meals (well not thinking, I assumed that meant 3 servings, not 3 meals serving 2 people a piece - whoops!) So I thought I would double the recipe and take it over to Jason and Katie in addition to the "Congrats you had a baby pasta". Well you will soon see how much chili this recipe made (I will put in perenthese how much I used for this batch - however the quanty to the left will be what you will want if you would like to make a normal batch that will make 3 meals!)

1 (3) onion(s)
1/2 (1) green pepper
2-3 (3-6) spicy peppers (mixture of japelenos and habeneros)
1 lb (3lbs) ground turkey (93/7)
2 cans (4 cans) tomatoe puree (the big cans)
2 cans (4 cans)petite diced tomoatos (normal sized cans - however I used 2 large cans)
1 can (2 cans) Chili Beans (Bush or Brooks and you can pick mild or spicy depending on how spicy you want it
1 can (2 cans of each) black beans, northern beans, kidney beans
Salt and Pepper
Cumin
Chili Powder

Chop up all the onions, and peppers (I deceeded 2 out of the 3 jalapenos and 2 out of 3 habeneros)



Place in the pot and let them start to saute (or as the Food Network would tell you "let them sweat"

Put in the ground turkey (you can always use ground beef - but turkey is so much healthier)

Add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. Remember you can always add more afterwards.... I put in about 4-5 dashes of cumin and chili powder, and then 1/2 tsp of S&P

Add in all of the tomato puree and petite diced tomatoes.... and allow this to simmer.


It was a this point when I realized I was in trouble on two different categories... The first, I am completely out of room to add beans, and the second - HOLY HOTNESS! I about dumped out the entire pot of chili and decided to throw my hands up in the air and forgo the entire thought about chili, but I had already opened up all of these beans so I figured I would move forth with the recipe.

So I was VERY thankful that I had received another large pot from JM's parents for christmas, and I was able to transfer some of the soup to another pot after it had simmered for a little while.


Dump in the chili beans with the sauce, take the remaining beans and rinse, and then add to the rest of your soup.

Allow your soup to simmer for a little while on low heat, at this point, I would recommend once again trying your chili, and you can always add more seasoning if necessary. I will admit, the spicy factor was completely toned down after I added the beans - and on a scale of 1-10, I would say it became a 4 (but before the beans it was totally a 13!)


On a side note, I found out a little culinary trick the other day - If you put a raw potato in whatever is too spicy, and take it out right before it completely cooks, it will take out some of the heat! Which is very good to know for the future when I think that I can take on 3 habeneros in one big batch of chili! ha

I was able to make enough to give a big container to Jason and Katie (which I'm pretty sure Jason enjoyed!), I had Chris and Laurie over, and we still have a big container left to freeze. Overall, I think it was a pretty successful pot(s) of chili!