Game Day Green Chili

Hey there! I know this comes a little late but I have to say it anyway…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It’s still January so don’t tell me it doesn’t count. Originally I wanted to share a Caldo de Albondigas recipe for my first recipe in 2016, but I ended up making it too late in the evening to get any good pictures. Don’t worry, it’s on the menu this week, so come back next week to check it out. You’re not going to want to miss that one, trust me!

Instead, today I am sharing a recipe that reminded me why I started this little food blog of mine, which was to document and share my successful experiments!

A game day green chili that will have your guests going back for seconds.

I often get these random recipe ideas that I just know are going to be great. Before Spanglish Spoon, my experiments were quickly lost because I never wrote them down.

Anytime I tried to recreate one of my own recipes, it always came out different than the first one. It wasn’t until I discovered food blogs online that I got serious about actually documenting my favorite recipes. From then on I’ve learned a great deal about recipe development and food photography. And there’s still so much to learn!

The chili I’m sharing today is one of those ‘on a whim’ recipes. It poked at me for about three or four days until finally I couldn’t take it anymore. The inspiration came from my love for chile verde. I love anything chile verde.

Related Recipe: Chile Verde Con Carne 

This one was different from the start, however. There would be no tomatillos or pork in this one. What I wanted was a chili that (a) wasn’t spicy, (b) had to be green for some odd reason which meant no tomatoes or red peppers, and (c) would be perfect for a crowd since the big game is coming up next month.

It came out so flippin GOOD! I couldn’t wait to share it with you all. Be sure to make a double batch if you plan on taking this to a party.Start by roasting the Anaheim peppers over a griddle on medium-high heat. They don’t have to be completely toasted and charred. The objective is to bring out a little sweetness and intensify their smokey flavor. By removing the seeds and pith beforehand, you also eliminate most of the heat. Just an FYI for ya.

After about two minutes on each side, remove them from the griddle and let them cool while you prep the rest of the ingredients. Once your done with prepping, peel the charred skin off of the Anaheim peppers and mince them.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the minced jalapeños and green onion. Saute them for two minutes.

After two minutes, add the garlic and Anaheim peppers. Saute another two or three minutes.

About three minutes later everything will start to get (or should be already) soft and slightly caramelized. Your kitchen will start to smell amazing!

Add the minced beef.

The meat is a very thin steak that has been minced into tiny cubes. Some grocery stores already have it like this, some don’t. If you don’t find it, you can also use ground meat, or find some thin steaks and mince them yourself. I just really wanted this chili to have a meaty/steak-like bite to it as opposed to a crumbly kind of texture.

Give it a quick stir to start cooking.

Add the bouillon, salt, cumin, and coriander. Mix it all well. Brown the meat until it is fully cooked. This should take about 10 minutes.

Now would be a good time to chop that kale if you haven’t already done so. I washed it, removed the stems completely, piled the leaves on top of each other and chopped them into small pieces.

Add that to the pot and cook the kale until it starts to wilt and is well mixed into the meat (about five minutes).

Add the beans along with all their juice…

plus one cup hot water.

Give it all a gentle stir, cover it up, and let it simmer on medium-low for fifteen minutes. You might have to bring it down to low if it becomes too hard of a boil. It should be a low simmer.

Now let’s talk about pots for a minute.

Have you ever had a dutch oven? Until this past Christmas I hadn’t had the pleasure of cooking in one before. My mom gave me a gift card to World Market for Christmas, and since a dutch oven was something I had been wanting for a few years now, that’s what I bought with the card.

You guys, it’s one of the best gifts a foodie can receive. And you don’t even have to get an expensive one! That’s one of the problems I had before. I could never bring myself to buy one because they are a little bit expensive, but so far, I’m happy with my $60 dutch oven.

The food sears beautifully, heat is distributed evenly, and clean-up is as easy as cleaning a teflon pot. If you love soups, stews, or chili, you will love the dutch oven. You won’t want to cook your soups in anything else again.

K, back to business ;).

After fifteen minutes, add the chopped cilantro. Stir it into the chili well and turn off the heat. Put the lid back on and let it rest ten minutes before serving.

The beauty of this chili is that it isn’t spicy or acidic, yet still has all the flavor of the peppers. I know that sounds weird, but somehow it all works in such a way that you don’t feel like you’ll be needing an antacid later on. What helps make this chili mild and almost sweet is the kale and cannellini beans.

Here I’ve paired it with chips because everyone’s always looking for something to dip their chips in.

Enjoy!!

Related Recipe: Turkey and Kidney Bean Soup