By Request: Buffalo Chicken Chili

This year we decided to enter our ward's chili cookoff, but first, we needed a good chili recipe.

The first one we tried out was called Fiery Chicken Chili. It. Was. Hot. Of course, that could have been due to our unfamiliarity with the ingredients–specifically chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Brooke bought a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, but we didn't know if all we needed was one from the can, or if the whole can consisted of one chopped up chipotle. We ended up throwing in the entire can, sauce and all. It smelled delicious. My mouth waters just thinking back on it now. But after that batch, we're pretty sure that we only needed one, maybe two of the chunks of pepper in that can.

Then I had an idea. We'd come up with the Sloppy Buffalo because of how much I like the flavor of hot wing sauce. What if I made a chili based on that sauce? I Googled it first and found that Rachael Ray had already "invented" it. Dang. Oh well.

Still, there were plenty of things I thought we should change from here recipe. Her's had no beans. Ours had to have beans. Her's had chopped up pieces of carrots and celery (because that's what you have on the side when you're eating hot wings), but when we did that the first time we made it, it tasted good, but it was a little off-putting to see those two ingredients in my bowl of chili. Lastly, her recipe was more of a stew (I think she calls it a stoup?) than I wanted.

So, here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1–2 lbs. ground chicken breast (we just bought chicken breast and put it in the food processor for a few minutes before cooking it–instant ground chicken)
• 1 large carrot
• 2 celery ribs
• 1 onion
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
• ¾–1 cup chicken stock
• ½–¾ cup of your favorite hot wing sauce (we use Cookie's)
• 1 15oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 large can of pinto beans
• 1 can of black beans

Heat the oil and melt the butter in a big pot. Add the chicken and brown it, breaking up the clumps as you go. Next, add the celery, carrots, garlic, and onion (We processed this combination of ingredients too, but that is unnecessary. The reason we did was so that I didn't have a big piece of celery staring at me from my bowl of chili). Also add the paprika, the bay leaf, and some salt and pepper. Cook it while stirring for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock, the hot sauce, the crushed tomatoes, and both kinds of beans, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the chili for about 25 minutes.

I liked to top mine off with a little bit of blue cheese dressing. Yum.

Go to the board!