On cold, cold days, sometimes all you want is a nice hot bowl of chili. Or maybe you’re craving stew in an oversized mug that you can hug with your hands to warm you up! Why not do both? I mean really, the only thing that makes stew, well, stew is being nice and thick and rich! You can easily turn a chili into a stew. Here’s how!
I started by melting 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Next, toss in the diced peppers and onions. Cook on medium for 10 minutes, until vegetables soften and start to brown a little. Add diced garlic, cook just 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Sprinkle ¼ cup of rice flour directly onto vegetables and stir constantly with a whisk until the flour is absorbed and stick to the vegetables and form little flour balls on the bottom of the pot about 2-3 minutes. This also allows the flour to cook, which will sweeten it. Add the chicken broth, a little bit at a time, whisking quickly in between each addition. Once you have introduced all the chicken broth, raise the heat until it starts to bubble a little, then lower the heat back down to low. Keep a watchful eye, this is the most important step for good texture. Keep whisking and stirring until the roux is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. When that happens, move on!
Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken chunks, pickled jalapenos, spices, and beans. I used 2 cans of drained, rinsed cannellini beans and 1 can of kidney beans because that’s what I had in pantry. You can use any kind of bean really. Either simmer in the pot on your stovetop for at least an hour, or preferably longer!
Or dump it all in a crockpot and turn it on low! That’s it! It’s a fabulous way to use leftovers! I used chicken from the day prior, when I roasted a 4 pound bird for Sunday dinner. Thank heavens for crockpots. I threw this all in the morning and by dinner time (roughly 8 hours on low), had a delicious hot meal ready when we got home from kids’ sports events that night!
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 red bell pepper – diced
- 1 green bell pepper – diced
- 1 medium yellow onion – diced
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- ½ cup rice flour
- 2 cups of chicken broth
- 4 cups chicken – cut into small chunks (can be white or dark meat)
- Beans – if doing dry, use a 1 pound bag of dried – prepare according to directions. Or 3-4 cans of beans.
- 1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
- 1 14 oz. can tomato sauce
- ½ cup pickled jalapenos – minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground thyme
- ½ tsp cayenne (or more if you like it extra spicy)
