Thai Coconut Chicken Chili

I found this recipe in BH&G magazine. It looked interesting so I thought I'd share it with you.

12 oz. boneless skinless chicken, cut into small cubes
1 large onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1.5 teaspoon chili powder
1.5 teaspoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 can coconut milk
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1 can white cannellini beans, white northern beans
3 medium carrots, shredded
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 green onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried

Fresh basil leaves and/or sliced jalapenos for garnishServe over hot rice.
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Cut up your raw chicken, and onions. Cook quickly in pot along with salt, pepper, ginger and chili powder.

Once chicken is no longer pink, add flour, mixing in well. Cook one minute longer.

Stir in coconut milk, peanut butter, beans (including juice), carrots, celery, green onion, garlic and chopped basil. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender to your liking. You may add up to a cup of water if it seems too thick for you.

P.S. I upped the amount of spice X2, I also added additional salt and black pepper. It seemed a bit lackluster before the additions. 

Gather your ingredients. I ran the celery and carrots through the food processor to speed things up. The green onions I keep frozen after cutting up a couple pounds of them. I also grated fresh ginger instead of using powder.

All the spices. I prefer to mix up my own chili powder. About equal amounts of cayenne, oregano and cumin. Also here you'll see the salt and black pepper.

Cut-up chicken, onions, ginger and spices into the pot. I poured the spices onto the pot, not onto the meat or onions. With the heat up high, I wait for the smell of the toasting spices to reach my nose before I stir up the pot. Toasting the spices just brings out their aroma. :)

All stirred up. Now, I go start the rice, smash the garlic and open cans of coconut milk and beans, while the chicken is cooking.

Chicken is no longer pink, add the flour. After mixing in thoroughly, cook one more minute before adding more ingredients.

Peanut butter. A bit of a Thai flavor. Not overwhelming at all.

Add coconut milk.

Bring heat up so it starts to boil.

Add beans.

Carrots and Celery.

Green onions and garlic.

Stir it all up well and bring up to boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and gently simmer for 20 minutes. Stir every once in a while, so it doesn't stick to pan bottom and scorch.

Yum! Serve over rice. Very tasty!

Potato, White Bean and Red Pepper Soup

1/4 to 1/2 lb. hickory-cured slab bacon, diced
**See note below, under pictures, if you prefer to not use bacon
1 T butter
1 onion
1 large or 2 smaller carrots
1 rib celery
8 - 10 small cans chicken broth
(We like very brothy soup. You can use less broth, if you'd like)
S&P
2 large leeks, washed and sliced into 1/2-inch circles
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 large red bell pepper diced
10.5 oz. can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
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This is a weekend meal because it does require a bit longer to cook.

Put diced bacon into large stock pot and crisp up. Remove cooked bacon to drain on paper towel and remove all but about a tablespoon of bacon fat from pot. Add tablespoon butter to the bacon fat. Once butter is melted, add chopped celery, onions and carrots. Saute for about 5 minutes.

Add potato and leeks. Stir up into other veggies.

Add the chicken broth and reserved cooked bacon. Bring to boil.

Lower heat to simmer and add in the bell pepper and rinsed beans. Put on the lid, adjusted to allow steam to escape and let simmer gently for at least an hour.

It may seem like a lot of ingredients, but it's not really. Most of them are basic soup ingredients.

Slice up the bacon. I use 1/2 pound. It's the only meat in the recipe. **If you don't want to use bacon, just saute your veggies in vegetable oil and add a teaspoon of hickory smoke flavoring to the broth. The smoky flavor the bacon imparts is important to the soup's broth in the end.

Brown your bacon in the pot. 

While the bacon is cooking... this is the perfect time to prepare your celery, onions and carrots. Slice and dice time.

Bacon is cooking, I've finished slicing veggies. 

This looks like a little less than 1/2 cup of fat.

I spooned out the fat and it's not quite 1/2 cup. I left about a tablespoon or so in the pot.

Remove cooked bacon to drain.

Add the tablespoon of butter to the pot.  

Add prepared veggies to the pot. Carrots, onions and celery at this point. 

Saute for 5 minutes while you cut up the potatoes.

Add the potato cubes.

Add the leeks now. I keep mine cleaned and sliced in the freezer, 

so I just pour some into the pot now. No need to thaw.

Add back the cooked bacon.

Add the broth. I used 10 small cans of broth. You could get by with 5 or 6 if you wanted the end product to be more stew-like. George prefers soupy soup. I always add lots of broth.

A healthy grinding of pepper. Don't add salt until later, if at all. With store bought broth, you probably don't need any additional salt. Bring soup to a boil.

Rinse the beans well after you drain the can juice.

Rinse with cold water.

Bring to boil. Stir down and lower heat to simmer.

Add red peppers...

Add beans.... I was trying to catch a picture of the beans spilling into the pot and ZOOOOOP! They all slid in in a blink! Believe me, they are in there! LOL!

Once it starts to simmer, put the lid on and set to allow steam to escape. If your lid doesn't do this, just set it slightly askew so it won't boil over. At this point, I've been in the kitchen for 55 minutes. Now, it's just simmering time. Sunday is a good day for this. Get it on to cook and then enjoy the smell in the house while it cooks. I'm giving it about 2 hours before dinner. I'll post the last picture as I'm serving... I'll be starting the Foccacia in a bit.

2.5 hours of simmering after I put on the lid. I stirred it once an hour. Nothing more.

Can't you practically taste it? This is the kind of meal that warms your soul on a cold winter's day. Steamed up windows in the kitchen... Hot bread in the oven... Everyone asking "When will dinner be done?" :)

Come and eat! Dinner is on the table! Hot steamy soup and hot fresh bread! It makes you feel warmer just looking at it!