Thursday, October 9, 2008

Turkey Hominy Chili

I know.  Yawn.  Think of it as an early day of atonement- each serving had about 325 calories.

The two mildly interesting aspects of this chili are the use of a whole turkey thigh, and hominy.

That's one thigh, 1.5 lbs and $2.25.    I take the skin off and then actually render some of the fat in the pot while I dice up the meat:

Here's the fat all ready, as soon as I get that gross looking skin out of there...

The meat gets nicely browned (one of the CIA mantras is "color is flavor").  Then a good dose of Penzey's chili powder....

The chopped vegetables waiting to go in...

When the veggies are soft, I add tomato paste and cook it until it is almost ready to burn on the bottom (caramelize it a bit- pincer is the French term)...

See, I threw the bone in there as well, to give it as much flavor as possible.  At this point the liquid (broth) and tomatoes go in, and it simmers for a good 30 minutes or so.

Hominy is corn that is treated the same way as corn for tortilla masa (dough) is.  It has that tortilla flavor and is very tender.  It is a key ingredient in Posole, and I like it a lot in chili.  I think it makes it more filling and although it is a caloric starch, it has a lot of fiber.  I add the beans and hominy for the last 30 minutes of simmering.

Almost done...

Just get that extra fat off the surface with a spoon...

Call it dinner. 

As usual, the 1 year old ate it all up while the 5 year old tried to get away with just shredded cheese and oyster crackers for dinner.  

1 comment:

WUMH Webmaster said...

Ah, yes, my 5 year old loves to 'sneak' big handfuls of shredded cheese from the bag. Unfortunately, my little one is not as adventuresome with food as yours.