Real World Menu Easy Corn Bread
Tonight we’re having chili and cornbread. The chili I made yesterday during my Soup Making Day. It’s an incredibly easy and versatile chili recipe in that it’s great with either chicken or beef and I can use most any bean that I have on hand (red, black, pinto, great northern). The amounts of beans and meat can also be varied depending on preference. The recipe calls for hatch chili peppers, but if you don’t have any on hand or can’t find them you use canned chili peppers instead.
Even better is the fact that my 13-year old daughter is a pro when in comes to preparing the corn bread (from scratch) and happily makes it whenever we have chili!
Chicken chili
2 cups dried beans sorted and rinsed
1 lb chicken thigh meat
1 large onion diced
1/ 2 large bell pepper diced
1 mild hatch chili pepper
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp salt or 1 beef or veggie bullion
2 cups water
3 tbls chili powder
2 tbls cumin
1 bay leaf
Soak beans overnight or if you are short on time, place beans in large pot and cover with water. Boil beans for about an hour until beans are soft adding water if necessary.
Place chicken in an oven safe pan (cast iron works best) and sprinkle with chili powder and cumin. Bake at 400 for about 20 min. Take pan out of the oven and let chicken sit until cool. Dice chicken and set aside.
In the same pan place onion, garlic and peppers and sauté over medium heat about 5 minutes. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and let simmer at least an hour. If you can make this ahead of time it gets better after sitting a day.
Corn Bread
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbls sugar-more or less can be used
2 tbls baking powder
Dash of salt
Two beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil or melted butter
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Grease pan- I prefer cast iron skillet
Sift or stir corn meal, flour, sugar baking powder and salt together. Make a well in center of dry ingredients. Combine milk, eggs and oil and add to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
