Last night was a “dump anything into the pot” kind of night. I just LOVE those meals! It’s fun to experiment and it is even more fun when the experiment turns out to be so YUMMY!
Ever since I did the Ultimate Reset, I’ve really been trying to incorporate some more diverse veggies into our diets. And squash is one of them. I’ve never been a big fan of Winter squashes, but they grew on me during the reset.
So, I bought a butternut squash last week to make some soup with. And we love chili, so I wanted to add it there! Since I was adding squash, I decided to mix it up a little more and add some non-traditional (for us anyways) foods to our chili.
And I’ll be honest, I HATE to chop up a Butternut Squash…If you live in a larger city, many grocery stores sell them already chopped up for you. I’m jealous if you can find those! But I did get to use my muscles to chop it up!
A friend did tell me that she uses a peeler to get hers started, so I got one of those this weekend. It worked pretty well, and it got Milo involved! He loves to help me chop.
Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
1 large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 bottle of beer, dark preferred for more flavor
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can rotel tomatoes
1/2 butternut squash, chopped into bitesize pieces
Directions
1. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil over Medium/High heat in a large stock pot. Cook ground chicken until no longer pink. Push to the side and add remaining olive oil. Cook the onion and bell pepper until softened, 4-5 minutes. Then add garlic and cook 2 minutes more.
2. Add chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook 3-4 minutes to allow chicken and veggies to absorb the flavors of the seasonings. Then add the bottle of beer. Scrape the bottom of the pot to get all those flavors into the chili.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Bring chili to a boil and then reduce heat to Low and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Serve with preferred toppings. I add full fat Greek yogurt and jalapenos to mine!
