Here Come Da' Judge......

Ha! Remember Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In?

If you do, well God bless ya-You're approximately my age.

(If you don't, well  look it up, some of the funniest TV ever in the late 60's early 70's.)

Sammy Davis Jr. as the Judge.

As usual, I digress, this post is about being a judge.

I received an e-mail a few days ago from David Tomberlin, founder and President of  Well Dressed Foods.

Well Dressed Foods is having a Recipe Contest..

The winner receives a Kitchen-Aid Artisinal Stand Mixer.

David asked me If I'd like to judge some of the recipes, (nine semi-finalist recipes).

I was happy to oblige. 

There are 9 Finalists.

After some consideration (about 5 seconds) I decided the first recipe I would test would be the

Spicy Chicken Chili.

It's still kind of cool and damp here in the Adirondacks, and yesterday was perfect Chili weather.

Here's the progression.

Mise' en place.

OK- Here's a disclaimer-I couldn't find ground chicken in Tupper yesterday.

So I bought ground turkey. 

I asked the butchers at Shaheen's IGA and they're not allowed to grind chicken.
So.......

They suggested ground turkey, and that's what I went with.

Here we go....

Red pepper, diced tomatoes, spanish onion, green onion, and garlic in the Dutch Oven.

Added the ground turkey.

Simmering, with the garbonzo beans and  sauce!

The Findings!

This is a great chili recipe, but not in the traditional sense.

I've always favored chili with a whole lot more of tomato/tomato sauce than this recipe calls for.

That said, with the garbonzo beans and ground chicken/turkey it almost falls into the category of White Chili.

Breaking it down, you can't go wrong with red bell pepper, chili pepper and garlic as a base on the Evoo.

The ground turkey was very good as a meat .
You could easily add ground beef (but drain it first after browning).
Or make it a vegetarian chili, by adding more beans of a different kind.

The sauce was the hero.

Any time I read spicy anything, I wonder....
Does spicy mean hot, or does it mean you get a hint of different flavors?
This was slightly spicy, in that I received a bit of heat, but the flavors, especially the peanut butter were revealed. It was a bit sweet, thanks to the peanut butter.
It had a pleasant after flavor, kind of a friendly heat.

My tasting panel gave it two thumbs up.

Everybody went back for seconds, and what was left was consumed this morning for brunch by the wife and daughter.

The fact that I never got to the leftovers makes this recipe a keeper!

Eat well my friends!