Slow Cookin': Buffalo Chicken Chili
This weekend was filled with fun fall activities. Saturday night we went to a somewhat hokey haunted house and had invited friends to come back after for some chili and pumpkin beers. As I've mentioned, I'm an avid cider fan and Sociable Cider Werks happened to have caramel apple cider and pumpkin spice cider on tap for their specials. I was so excited, I could barely contain myself and marched on over at around noon on Saturday to pick up my very first growler. After trying both the caramel apple and the pumpkin spice, my husband and I both agreed that the caramel apple was great, but the pumpkin spice had a little sumpin' extra, so we ordered it up and brought home 64 ounces of pure pumpkin delight...in a pretty sweet stainless steel Klean Kanteen to boot.
The addition of pumpkin cider to our array of pumpkin beers was a hit with the group Saturday evening, as was this buffalo chicken chili that I popped into the slow cooker earlier in the day. I used this recipe as my base, but made some alterations, such as using chicken legs and thighs instead of ground chicken, and adding corn. Also, I wanted it to be ready when we got home from the haunted house, so I adapted the recipe for the slow cooker.
Buffalo-flavored items often scream "artificial" and "processed" in my mind, but Crystal hot sauce is pretty simple and pretty delicious. And besides using skin-on chicken, which you could certainly substitute with skinless, the recipe is rather light, but oh-so-hearty.
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili
Serves: 6-8
Preparation Time: 15 minutes prep, 4-8 hours in slow cooker
Ingredients:
3 lbs. bone-in chicken legs & thighs
1 tbsp. butter
2 carrots, peeled & chopped into 1/2-in. chunks
1 onion, diced
4 celery stalks, leaves removed & chopped
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. cumin
1 15-oz. can of cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
2 15-oz. cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I used no salt added)
1 12-oz. bottle of light beer (I used Grain Belt—you could also use chicken broth)
1 c. hot sauce (I used Crystal)
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. honey
1 c. frozen corn
salt/pepper, to taste
1 bunch green onions, chopped
blue cheese crumbles, to serve
Method:
1. Heat butter in a frying pan over high heat. Liberally salt chicken and then brown in the butter. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan; brown in batches if necessary. Once browned, place chicken into slow cooker.
2. Place chopped carrots, onions and celery into the hot pan that was used for cooking the chicken. Saute over high heat and add oregano and cumin. Stir well to insure the vegetables are coated. Once onions have just started to soften, remove from heat and pour vegetables over chicken in slow cooker.
3. Add beans, tomatoes, beer, hot sauce, parika and honey to slow cooker. Stir well. Set slow cooker to low and leave for 6-8 hours or high and cook for 4-6 hours.
4. When ready to eat, shred chicken with two forks and remove as many bones as possible. Stir in frozen corn and let sit for a few minutes to heat the corn through. Salt and pepper to taste and adjust any other seasonings. Serve with green onions, blue cheese crumbles, extra hot sauce and bread for dipping.
