Recipe: Chicken Quinoa Chili

I love chili especially during the winter months. There are so many variations of the traditional chili that we've always had and I love that. I really don't think there is a "wrong" ingredient. A few weeks ago I mentioned wanting some new soup recipes and asked for ideas from my Facebook friends. One friend shared a link for the chili I'm going to share today. I made some changes to it, which is another beauty of chili recipes...you can change them up. The best thing about this soup today, everything was thrown in the crockpot, turned on and forgotten about! LOVE. THAT! 

This is a lighter chili, not leaving you with that heavy feeling that thicker chili's can leave you with. Because the quinoa has a texture to it, you could leave the chicken out and load it up with veggies and more beans. We have had friends who are vegan and on several occasions I have made a veggie chili...so good and you really don't miss the meat.

This last week has been crazy for our family. Our youngest daughter's High School soccer team is competing in districts and we have had to travel north an hour and a half each way 4 times for games. Our oldest is getting married next month and this week we had a dress fitting and a visit to the venue, not to mention working on making her bouquet (I can't wait to post on that). On top of working and everything else. It's been nuts. So I welcomed the day I decided to throw this dish in the crockpot. I didn't have to worry about and all I did in the end was cheat and make Jiff corn muffins...don't judge me.

I also apologize for the picture...I realized I didn't have anything handy to take a pic once I was done with this dish and we had an unexpected dinner guest (which was fine), but I wasn't thinking of taking a pic. I ate this bowl 2 days later for lunch, so no, it's not pretty, but it was very good. The can sizes are your average sizes, which I never take the time to pay attention to. The original recipe called for 1 large 28 oz, reg. diced tomatoes and two 15 oz. ones..I just used 3 15 oz. cans

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cans Petite diced tomatoes with green chilis (or can use one plain and two with chilis)
1 can of corn, drained (opt.) some people cannot handle corn so omit if needed
3 c. vegetable or chicken stock
1 c. quinoa, rinsed
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbs. cumin
1-2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbs. chili powder
Optional additions (chopped onion, olives, garlic, etc.)
Toppings: sour cream, shredded cheese, green onions, avocado, etc.

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in the crock pot. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-7 hours. Remove chicken, shred and return to pot. Serve with toppings and yummy warm corn bread.


With Joy UNquenchable,