Super Spicy Beanless Chili

For the last month, I have put cayenne pepper in and on EVERYTHING. I can't stop. I'm beyond obsessed with spicy food.

I get food obsessions. They last about two months and then they go away. And God bless Andy for putting up with them, because my last little obsession was with FunDip, and you can't get that in stores anymore.

So the other night, I was going to make this chili, but Andy wouldn't let me because we already had one soup in the fridge, and we don't need another, blah blah blah, whine whine, eat the soup before it goes bad.

Not to mention I told him I was going to put the chili on hot dogs and Andy is not a hot dog fan. Even a little. At all. But that's another story for another time.

The soup is gone now, but I still felt like a little rebel when, while Andy was at work tonight, I made this. I'm not going to lie, it made my lips sting a little, but I wish it was hotter.

The true problem, my friends, is simply that I do not have access to ghost peppers. That and there's only one habanero in my house right now, and I'm saving that for some special recipe that I have yet to make up.

BUT, without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

2 cloves minced garlic

1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce

1/4 yellow onion, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 c. chili powder

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper*

1 tbsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp paprika

1/3 c. Frank's original buffalo sauce

1/2 tsp sea salt

*If you're not as big a spicy fan as me, I'd recommend 1/2 tsp cayenne

Directions

1. Brown the ground beef and mix in the minced garlic at the end
2. In a large sauce pan, combine beef and garlic with the remaining ingredients; bring to simmering over medium heat
3. Reduce heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally, and let simmer for 40 minutes, or until desired thickness is achieved

I ate about half a cup of the chili as it cooked. 

I told myself I was making sure I had the flavor right.

Which I did. I totally did.

After I let the chili simmer for a good 45 minutes, I cooked up some incredibly delicious Hebrew National hot dogs (seriously, if you haven't tried them, DO IT RIGHT THIS SECOND. Most amazing hot dogs EVER), plunked 'em right down in some buns, slathered them in chili, then topped the whole thing with a "fiesta cheese" blend. Ole! 

Now CHOW DOWN!!! Then prop yourself up on about a dozen pillows when it's time for bed, cuz you're gonna have some heartburn. But if you're anything like me, the desire for tongue-sizzling chili far outweighs the aversion to a little bit of indigestion. 

Buffalo Chicken Fingers

So I don't think there's any secret that I like my food really spicy...all the time. I think half my tweets (limited though they are at this point) are about how much I like spicy food.

Last night, there was a Man vs. Food marathon on the Travel Channel. I watched until my eyes bled. Adam Richman is a HUMAN GARBAGE DISPOSAL. Seriously?! Seven pounds of Italian food in ninety minutes?!


Anyway, in one episode, he was re-doing his very first spicy challenge thing, because the first time he tried it, he couldn't get past the first bite. Holy. Crap.

Before I was pregnant, I could pretty much Hoover any spicy foodstuff I wanted. I'm not kidding, I ate a salsa called "Baptism of Fire" when I was ten years old. I don't know what was in it, but my dad said his coworkers couldn't even handle a pinky-tip-dip of the stuff. I loved it.

Then when Logan screwed up the level of every single hormone in my body, the fluctuation managed to make my taste buds betray me in the worst possible way: I hated spicy food. I couldn't handle a jalapeno. Heck, I couldn't even handle On the Border's "forgive us for taking forty-five minutes to make your food" time-waster salsa. It was pure palate devastation.

FINALLY, though, now that my son is seventeen months old, I not only like spicy food again, I crave it. I desire it the way Snooki desires one of those nasty, orange, steroid-filled guidos.

Guys, I put cayenne pepper and hot sauce in that chicken and dumpling soup from last night. WHO DOES THAT?!

So, the combination of my insatiable need for spicy things and watching Adam Richman devour pounds of straight chili extract and ghost peppers drove me to do this tonight, at 9:30 pm. Enjoy. Recreate. Give me your input and variations.

Homemade Buffalo Chicken Fingers


Ingredients:
Vegetable oil
3 chicken breasts, thawed
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice + milk (2% or whole) or cream to equal 1 cup.*
1/2 - 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp hot sauce
1 bottle Frank's RedHot Original Buffalo sauce

*or 1 c. buttermilk

Directions:
1. Fill a 2- or 3-quart pot halfway with vegetable oil, cover, and set to medium heat.
     IMPORTANT: Once the oil comes to a boil, be sure to keep something in the pot to keep the temperature from getting too high. It will start a fire, and I speak from experience. I recommend chopping up a potato and dropping the pieces in, because by the end you'll have buffalo chicken AND fries. And that's never a bad thing.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 c. flour and all the dry spices. Whisk them all together.

3. In another bowl, mix together the milk and lemon juice and let it sit for about 5 minutes. This acts like buttermilk. I don't know about any of you, but I'm way more likely to find milk and lemon juice in my fridge than buttermilk.

4. After the milk and lemon juice have sat for five minutes or so, add the hot sauce and flour until the consistency is about the same as that of paint (my husband gave me that...he's the imagery master). We stirred in an extra few shakes of cayenne and chili powder. Like I've mentioned about five thousand times...we like spicy.

5. Trim the fat off the chicken breasts and slice them into chicken-finger-sized strips. I didn't measure because I figure most of you have had a chicken strip before and know the size you prefer.

6. Coat the strips in the buttermilk/flour batter, then dredge each in the flour and spice mixture. 

7. Place the strips in the oil (the fries should be done by now), but try to only cook one breast at a time. The strips will cook quicker and more evenly.

8. Pull them out when they look like this on the outside:

and are appropriately cooked through on the inside.

9. Take the chicken out and place on a dish lined with a layer or two of paper towels, to let the oil drain off, then transfer to a large bowl for coating with buffalo sauce.

10. Dump a whole mess of buffalo sauce all over the chicken strips and "toss" until they're well coated.

Serve with bleu cheese dressing and an icy cold beer.

Ahhhhh...that's the good stuff.

Do you have a cool variation on buffalo wings? I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for reading!

Andy's Easy Chicken 'n Dumpling Soup

I've said it on my Facebook more than once. Mostly because it's totally true.

I am married to the awesomest cook ever. I don't know where he got it from, honestly. Neither of his parents have ever cooked for me. He HAS worked in the food industry for over a decade, though, so I have a funny feeling that's where the majority of it comes from.

Anyway, I figured out a super awesome way to get completely original recipes, super easy and free, for my little blog here: follow Andy while he cooks!

So here's the first of his many recipes.

Easy Chicken 'n Dumpling Soup

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time varies (approx an hour)

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 chicken bullion cubs

1/2 chopped yellow onion

2 - 3 tbsp olive oil

2 - 4 celery stalks

10 baby carrots (or 2 - 3 regular carrots)

2 ears corn

1 tsp minced garlic

thyme

parsley (dried)

sage

cayenne pepper (optional)

salt

pepper

2 1/4 c. Bisquick

2/3 c. milk

2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Fill a large pot halfway with water and add bullion cubes and chicken breasts (trim fat off chicken breasts first). Bring to a boil over medium heat, adding the spices to taste. Andy and I love spicy food, and Adam Richman was doing the "Suicide Six Wing Challenge" on Man vs. Food and it looked amazing, so we decided to add a few shakes of cayenne pepper. We also added 4 shakes of thyme, 4 shakes of dried parsley, and a pinch of sage.

2. At the same time, saute chopped onion in olive oil, with the garlic and pepper to taste, for about 3 minutes (to keep onions crisp)

3. Once the water is boiling, turn heat down to medium. Add sauteed onions.

4. Chop the vegetables and add to the pot. This is where you can get creative. Carrots, onions, and celery are sort of the standard, but you can as many and whatever kind of veggies you want. The more veggies, the heartier and more stew-like your soup will be. 

Carrots, chopped by my wonderful hubs.

Fresh corn cut off the cob

Broccoli florets. We cut off the stem things because, seriously...who wants them?

Headed for the compost pile!

(broccoli stems, leftover celery, coffee grounds)

5. After about 40 minutes, the chicken should be cooked. Pull the breasts out of the pot and check the  insides; make sure the insides are white and the juice runs clear. Pull breasts into smaller pieces with a fork.

Pulling the meat apart instead of just chopping it gives the soup a homemade texture.

6. While the chicken sits for about ten minutes, mix the dumplings together; they're just Bisquick and milk. Andy LOVES parsley (I totally don't, but it's his recipe), so he chopped up a bunch of parsley (which ended up being 2 tbsp once it was all chopped) and mixed it all into the dumplings. 

7. Add the chicken back into the pot and stir. 

8. Add the dumpling dough into the pot by spoonfuls (or, in Andy's case, by hand).

Don't worry, his hands were nice and clean. I think.

9. Return water to a boil, but turn the burner back down to medium after 5 minutes. 

10. Simmer (uncovered) around 20 minutes. This lets the soup thicken up; the water will boil off and the dumplings will make the broth richer.

Ta-da!

Mucho deliciousness. :)