When I say this recipe is our weekly staple I am not kidding — we make this recipe every week without fail! It’s simple, tasty, healthy, and inexpensive. Not to mention we usually get about three dinners out of it, so it makes our weekly meal plans pretty easy. Eventually I’m sure we’ll tire of our weekly chili, but right now we love it. I originally found this recipe in the cookbook Slim & Scrumptious but I’ve tweaked it a little by adding in more veggies and substituting a few things to Paleo-ize it if need be.
So here it is, a simple and yummy recipe for some yummy Buffalo Chicken Chili!
- 8 carrots
- 8 stalks of celery
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 pounds of ground chicken (or turkey, and it’s ok if there’s a little more meat than 2 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons flour (Paleo-ize: substitute with almond or coconut flour)
- 4 cups vegetable or tomato juice (Whole Foods has a yummy vegetable blend juice that’s exactly 4 cups)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup hot sauce (we like Cholula hot sauce)
Directions
- Set a pot on the stove and put the heat to medium-high.
- Peel carrots and cut them lengthwise, then slice them into little half-moons. Cut the celery too into small slices and mince the garlic.
- Drizzle a little olive oil into your pot, then toss in your carrots and celery to sauté. Stir occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes. Add a tablespoon of water occasionally if the veggies start to scorch (but don’t make it too watery, just enough to keep everything free and moving when you stir it)
- Add the garlic in and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add your ground chicken in with the veggies. Sauté while continuously breaking the chicken into smaller pieces and stirring it into the veggies. Cook for about 5 minutes or until you notice the chicken is no longer pink. Be sure to stir it well and not leave any little bits stuck to the sides or bottom.
- Sprinkle in your chili powder and flour and stir to evenly coat the chicken and veggies.
- Immediately add the vegetable juice and hot sauce.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer (partially covered) for at least 20 minutes.
And that’s it! You’re welcome to put some toppings on it, though we usually don’t since we still eat minimal diary. The book listed a blue cheese topping (1/4 cup nonfat sour cream and 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles) that you can make, but we haven’t tried it. We usually like to pair the chili with some baked skillet bread (made out of almond flour) or some other baked veggies.
Typically we get about 6 servings out of this recipe, though we don’t have large bowls and usually eat something else on the side (so you may find it makes 4 large servings).
Hope you give this a try, it’s super easy and very yummy!
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What are your go-to favorite recipes? Please share!
guest
This looks delicious! What’s your skillet bread recipe? I just purchased some almond flour and need some ideas. Love these posts as I’m on a restricted diet due to nursing my son right now. Good to be reminded I’m not the only one sometimes. Thanks!
honeydew / 7504 posts
Mmm…buffalo chicken? Chili? You’re speaking my language!
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
Love buffalo chicken – having it in chili form sounds fantastic. Does little deer eat this as well or is it too spicy?
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
Theresa- I got the recipe from the Nom Nom Paleo app, but here’s a blog post by somebody who also made it: http://marcusbosano.blogspot.com/2013/01/nom-nom-paleo-better-off-bread.html?m=1
It’s super yummy! Instead of butter you can do a little coconut oil or even some tallow (we use bacon grease – seriously so good!). I’m baking this tomorrow, maybe I’ll do a post on it!
@Mrs. Confetti: it’s literally her favorite food ever. She’s never turned it down or spit it out, and we usually have to cut her off because she’ll eat it until she spits up a bit! I sometimes add extra veggies in her serving too and she doesn’t notice
guest
This looks great thank you! Did you use eggs or have you tried any substitutions with that as well? I’m just wondering if flax or an egg replacer would work still? So many restrictions but usually there are good alternatives if we look hard enough! And bacon grease sounds a,axing actually! I find with this restricted diet I eat all the fat I can get!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
We’ve been fortunate to not have any trouble with eggs, so I’m not sure about egg substitutes! I know in lots of paleo “bread” recipes that eggs are a big component. Let me know if you end up finding something that works!
persimmon / 1141 posts
Ooh this is awesome, I might make it for Superbowl Sunday!!
pear / 1812 posts
Made this tonight and it was a big hit with DH and I!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@NurseMommy: awesome! We did too!
blogger / pomegranate / 3044 posts
@Mrs. Deer: going to try this tonight, I’ve had a lot of luck with your mason jar salads! you don’t season the chicken at all?
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@Mrs. Tiger: you’ll end up putting chili powder and flour on it but that’s it!