Fall Fare and Bad Apples Part 1

Hey folks, Karin here to update you on our kitchen fun over the weekend.


Fall weather requires that one yearns for soups and stews, even better if made in a Crockpot. In keeping with the theme of fall and it's own food family, we have Halloween and its traditional dish, Chili!
Utah has all sorts of strange food traditions. I would not be surprised if some of you found the idea of a traditional Halloween food (besides candy corn) a ridiculous notion, none the less it is tradition here in the good old Beehive state. Sister Wives and Mothers of a dozen, or more, love this dish for its ease of preparation and low cost per serving.


2 recipes for you this time, on deck, my own Tri Color Chili.

First, the recipe we found to get rid of a bad apple or 2. (Check the next blog for the recipe invention where we used up another apple)


I purchased some apples from Costco when my wonderful brother and his wife let me tag along on their grocery shopping trip. Typically I am impressed with the quality of produce I purchase at Costco.
However, when I got the apples home, both Alessa and I were sorely disappointed with this particular bunch. We decided it would be more cost effective to find recipes for the suspect fruit rather than just throw them away.
The Two Sisters went on a cooking spree this weekend, we needed some things to take for lunches or have for a quick easy dinner when we have other things going on or the kitchen is too dirty to even think about cooking.
Good old www.allrecipes.com came to our rescue with an Apple Chicken Stew recipe, it sounded very interesting and we selected that one to experiment with.
　

Apple Chicken Stew
Submitted By: Carol Mathias
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 4 Hours
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
4 medium potatoes, cubed
4 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 medium red onion, halved and sliced 1 celery rib, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 large tart apple, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 cups apple cider or apple juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 bay leaf
Minced fresh parsley
Directions:
1. In a slow cooker, layer potatoes, carrots, onion and celery. Combine salt, thyme, pepper and caraway; sprinkle half over vegetables. In a skillet, sauté chicken in oil until browned; transfer to slow cooker. Top with apple. Combine apple cider and vinegar; pour over chicken and apple. Sprinkle with remaining salt mixture. Top with bay leaf.
2. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or until vegetables are tender and chicken juices run clear. Discard bay leaf. Stir before serving. Sprinkle with parsley.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com
　
We propped up our model for inspiration, meaning I left my netbook open and on the kitchen counter, and went to town creating our own masterpiece, as any true artist would.
Our first draft reduced or increased the portions of a few ingredients, omitted or switched some.

These modifications included:
A Jonagold apple instead of a tart variety, due to the Costco apple fiasco
2 large sweet potatoes (not yams) in place of the standard potatoes
½ a white onion rather than the red
I accidently greatly increased the amount of Thyme but it worked out.
I purposely doubled the amount of apple cider because there wasn’t nearly enough liquid once we got everything in the crock pot.
We did away with the caraway seeds and bay leaf, mainly because they were not in our spice cupboard and we were not going back to the store.
I also threw in some fresh Rosemary sprigs.
Once completed, we paired it with a sinfully fluffy and fresh Harmons Bakery French White Bread round.
All in all, this recipe is very good, freezes and reheats well. The Sweet Potatoes really soaked up the Cider and were sweeter because of it. We agreed it would probably be better with a tart apple, such as a Granny Smith, rather than the sweeter Jonagold variety.
I’m pretty sure we will be making this again, with a few more modifications. Possibly not as much chicken, it really did call for a lot for just 6 servings.
I might even go crazy and get the Caraway seeds and Bay Leaf.
　
Now, on to my very own creation.
Tri Color Chili
I was actually pretty impressed with myself on this one. It was splendid for something I just threw together because I thought it sounded good, and I was right. ;)

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can great northern beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 TBS tomato paste
1 packet Chili seasoning (I think I used the Western Family brand)
McCormick Hot Mexican Chili Powder to taste (1-2 tsp)
½ a white onion
1 ½ lbs ground chicken thighs
1 TBS Sciabica Jalapeno infused Olive Oil

Directions:　
In a large pot, on Med-High, heat the oil and sauté the onions, add the chicken and brown. Throw everything else in the pot, stir to mix, and heat on Med-High for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour, I recommend longer though.
This recipe would also work well in a slow cooker overnight.

We actually prepared both of these soups on the same day. The aroma of the chili was so delightful we were tempted to have that for dinner rather than the Apple Chicken Stew as we had planned all along. We opted for the stew and saved the chili for lunch the next day.

Tree photo courtesy of Sarah Chorn :)