When I was in college I used to love this restaurant Aladdin's Natural Eatery in Ithaca, NY. It sounds earthy-crunchy, and it was, but it was also delicious. My go-to dish, for a quick $6, was the chicken chili with cheese. They used the vegetarian chili as a base, but topped it with this crispy, baked chicken that was so good. I tried to recreate this last night on the fly, so let me try to approximate. I sauteed onions, garlic and celery in a little oil, then added 2 qts. of salsa that I made last summer and canned. I didn't have any peppers, so I figured the salsa would solve the tomato and veg problem. It was very thin stuff, not like commercial salsa, so it you want to use salsa, add extra tomatoes, or a little water. The white beans I did in a pressure cooker and threw in (use canned of any kind if you want beans). I also added some water, a packet of chicken broth for flavor, and some dried chilis. For spices I used medium hot chili powder and chipotle powder, but if you don't have that, don't worry.
For the chicken, I marinated chicken thighs in the juice of a tangerine that was dying a slow death on my counter, and threw in some jerk chicken spices. I then baked it at 425 for about 20 min. while the chili was cooking down. I finished the chicken with a quick run under the broiler to give it that Aladdin's crispiness, chopped it up, and threw it in the pot.
If you've never made chili without a recipe, it's a good way to conquer the fear of going freestyle- you really will have a hard time messing it up. The one tip I can give you it keep an eye on the amount of liquids used. If it's too liquid, leave the lid off the pot and let some evaporate. If it's thick enough, leave the lid on.
It wasn't perfect, but it was a pretty good recreation of a nice college memory, except without the Hootie and the Blowfish blasting from the '85 Plymouth Acclaim.
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