Monday, November 5, 2012

Punkin' Time: Chicken Pumpkin Chili

Its cold outside....its been like that for a few days....this can only mean 1 thing! Its time for all the pumpkin recipes to start coming out....I love pumpkin anything.....Pumpkin Beer (this one is AMAZING), pumpkin pie, pumpkin tarts, Cheesecake Factory's Pumpkin Cheesecake, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!!!

The first thing I thought I would try was a Chicken Pumpkin Chili....Its an amalgamation of like 3 recipes I saw...I was going to make it for a work potluck, but I ended up getting stuck in FL and I had already bought all the ingredients...so I had a lot of pumpkin chili alllllll to myself lols.

My version of this has chicken and butternut squash but you can vary the meat with beef, bison, turkey, pork....I think this recipe will basically work with any type of meat. I didnt put any beans in this cuz I dont like beans....but, I think beans might actually be good in this too. This ended up being super yummy and easy. I used the slow cooker, cut everything up, threw it all in the slow cooker before I left for work and by the time I got home....the house smelled yummy and dinner was ready! My favorite kind of meals--easy and delicious!

A quick tip for getting the flesh/meat of the butternut squash out....use a peeler and peel the skin otherwise it'll be really hard to cut thru the squash.
















Doesn't this look delicious....It was nice and smoky from the ancho and chipotle chili and spicy from the green chilis but slightly sweet from the pumpkin and the squash....soooo good! I am a little sad that I forgot the sour cream! Give this a try and stay consumed!






Ingredients: 
1.5 lb of chicken cut up into small chunks
1/2 butternut squash cut up into small cubes
15 oz can of pumpkin puree
4 oz can of green chilis (you can put in as much as you want depending on how spicy you want it)
2 14 oz of fire roasted tomatoes
1 bottle of pumpkin beer
1 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp of ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp of chipotle chili powder
   (you can skip the ancho and chipotle powder and just use regular old chili powder if you want...
      but i really liked the smokiness they added.)
2 cloves of garlic, very finely minced.
quick sprinkle of nutmeg
salt and pepper to tatste
1 can of corn or about 1.5 cups of frozen corn (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Shredded cheese (optional)

Directions: 

  1. Combine the pumpkin puree, green chili, fire roasted tomatoes, pumpkin beer, chili powders, garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper in the crock pot. 
  2. Stir to mix everything together
  3. Add the chicken and butternut squash and stir to combine. Make sure the butternut squash is submerged in the liquid to ensure that it is cooked through. 
  4. At this point you can sprinkle the corn on top if you arent going to be home until 8 hours later....If you are going to be watching your crock pot, then wait until about 4.5 hours in before you add the corn so it doesnt get too mushy. 
  5. Cook on low setting of the crock pot for 6-8 hours. 
  6. When you are ready to serve, you can serve with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle of shredded cheese. I also saw in one of the recipes you could mix a little cinnamon or pumpkin spice into the sour cream before serving it too. 





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