Chili

I decided this afternoon that I was in the mood for cornbread, and since cornbread on its own is not a very nutritious dinner, I made some chili to go with it. I suspect that according to some definitions, this actually doesn’t qualify as chili (Texans can be very particular about chili — I think around here it’s only supposed to be meat in a spicy sauce, no beans or anything), but it was tasty. Mostly I just threw in anything I had on hand that seemed like a chili sort of ingredient:

– ground turkey, browned
– yellow onion, jalapeno peppers (seeded), red pepper; sauteed
– canned tomato
– chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (about half a small can)
– black beans
– pinto beans
– salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and oregano

Everything went into a big pot and simmered for probably an hour. Then we topped the finished product with colby jack cheese and tons of sliced avocado.

Near the end of the simmering time I baked up the corn bread. I’m not much for baking, so I used Jiffy mix, which often comes out rather dry. tinaconnolly told me at some point that she puts a dollop of sour cream into baked goods to make them stay moist, so I decided to try a variation on that — I didn’t have any sour cream on hand but I had some nonfat yogurt, so I put a glob of that in along with the normal milk/egg that the package called for. And it worked! The cornbread came out with more of a cakelike texture instead of being all dry and crumbly.