Over the Bars Smoked Chicken Chili

• Posted on 28 February 2023
• By KW
• 0

After several years of working on recipes, doing some cooking and other kitchen activities, I never thought I'd be writing a food blog...  But several people asked for the recipe for the chili we made last week for the Chili Crawl, and even though it didn't win first place we know it was tops in your heart, right?

Have you ever looked up a recipe on the interweb and been subjected to like 47 paragraphs of fluff before you get to the actual recipe?   I don't want to hear about how much your Great Aunt Tillie loved making this in 1907; I want to know how she did it.  Get me to the source!  And here I am now, writing my own recipe on a blog, and I can't seem to just write out what you really want to see.  It's like a compulsion.

After last year's not-first-place finish we knew we would have to enter again.  We started suggesting and trying recipes probably as early as November.  Several versions of chili were made.  Beef-based, pork, a vegetarian, etc.  The pork one used tomatillos and was very tasty, but it came out in sort of an off-putting green color, so we took a vote on the two finalists.  Jenny G. came up with the name (which narrowly beat one proposed by Paul that was much funnier but too hard to fit on the sign...).

The smoked chicken idea came to me in a dream.  Or whatever.  I don't remember.  I just thought, "hey, what if we do a chicken chili, since everyone is familiar with that, but change it up a little?"  So I figured smoking the chicken would work.  And it did.  I did a little recipe research and tried to figure out what would go well with the smoked meat.  There is no chili powder in it at all, though there are some actual chiles.  So here you go.  It's easy to make.  It came in third, and in the bike business we call that a podium finish, and that makes it all worthwhile.  And that nonsense about "it's not about the competition, it's about the fun," etc.  Whatever.  I want to win.  Next year!

OVER THE BARS SMOKED CHICKEN CHILI (recipe for 1/2 gallon)

(This is the exact recipe we used for the Chili Crawl.  Add or subtract as your taste dictates!)

 - 1.5-ish pounds chicken, smoked with your favorite rub, skinned, and shredded/pulled (do a whole chicken and use half for this and half for something else)  (I used a rotisserie chicken for a second test batch, and it worked fine, but was less smoky, but it was easier to do since I don't own a smoker)

 - 1/3 lb. bacon, diced and cooked (or you can cook it first and then dice it, but the other way is easier) (not too crispy - it's not bacon bits, it's smoke flavor)

 - 1 red bell pepper, roasted and diced (roast it under your broiler, on your grill, or on your gas stovetop til it's charred; place in a paper bag or other sealed container to soften the skin; peel the skin and dice the pepper)

 - 2 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth

 - 2 cups water (or all broth - up to you)

 - 7 oz. can green chiles (with the juice)

 - 2 x 15 oz. cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

 - 1 x 15 oz. can black eye peas, drained and rinsed

(^^want to use all pinto or all b.e. peas? go ahead!^^)

 - 2 chipotle in adobo peppers, diced small

 - 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

 - 3 cloves garlic, minced

 - 1/2 tsp white pepper (black is fine if you don't want to buy this stuff, but it is different)

 - 2 tsp cumin

 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon

 - 1/2 tsp coriander

 - 2 tsp liquid smoke

 - 2 tsp salt

 - 1 dried guajillo chile

 - 2 dried New Mexico chiles

Remove as much meat as possible from half of that smoked chicken, leaving out the weird chewy stuff that no one likes

Cook your bacon (either before or after dicing it)

Using the bacon grease, sweat your onions until they soften a bit (or use olive or veg oil)

Add the spices to the onions (not totally necessary - you can add them later, too)

(^^you can do all of these things in the cooking pot if you want to^^)

Mix all ingredients together in a large pot, cover, and simmer for an hour or two, stirring occasionally.  Place the guajillo and New Mexico chiles in the pot whole and let them steep.  They can hang out as long as you want.  For the official Chili Crawl day, we also used the chicken skin as a steep - just place the skin (bones, too, if you want) on top of the pot and let the goodness soak down through the mix.  Remove it when you're done.

Serve it up with maybe some sour cream and tortilla chips.  

Let us know if you make it!!