Like many people, when the weather becomes cooler, we enjoy a hot bowl of chili to warm us from the inside out. 
And it seems like the colder it gets, the more often we make it. There are so many different ways to make chili, and it always interesting for me to learn how others make it. I don’t experiment too much as far as varying my recipe, but I’ve always wanted to make white chili. For some reason though, I still haven’t done that. If anyone reading this has a tried and true white chili recipe that they love, I’d so much appreciate getting your recipe if you’re willing to share.
Anyway, I just made a huge pot of buffalo chili yesterday so I won’t have to cook for several days. I don’t mind leftovers at all. In fact, it seems like the longer the chili sits in the refrigerator, the better it gets. And if we still have some left over after three days, well…we can always freeze it so we have a quickie meal on days we don’t have time to cook.
Here’s a picture of my chili and the recipe will follow:
Buffalo Chili (Yield: It Makes a Really Big Pot!)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground buffalo
- 2 cans (each can is 14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies (or you can use two cans of diced tomatoes and then add two cans of green chilies)
- 2 small onions
- 1 lb. pasta (I used tomato-spinach fusilli pasta but you can use spaghetti, elbow macaroni, or whatever you have on hand)
- 1 can (46 oz) of V8 juice (or any other brand of vegetable juice will be fine)
- chili powder to taste
- dried chili flakes to taste
- Hungarian sweet paprika to taste
- 2 cans of black beans (14 oz cans)
- water
- salt
- olive oil
- Optional: diced jalapenos (I usually add jalapenos to my chili but I didn’t have any on hand this time)
Instructions:
- Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Add a little olive oil and salt, stirring frequently.
- While you’re waiting for the water to boil, dice the onions and then fry them in a little olive oil until they’re soft.
- After the onions are done, add the ground buffalo, the dried chili flakes, the paprika, and the chili powder to the oil and onions and cook until the meat is done. (I don’t measure any of my spices…just season to taste. I ended up having to add more seasonings to the chili later because when I tasted it, it wasn’t spicy enough for me.
- After the meat is cooked, add the two cans of tomatoes and the two cans of beans. If your pan isn’t big enough, you may need to transfer everything to a larger pot.
- Mix the meat, beans, and tomatoes together, and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or so until it’s hot. Then reduce the heat and simmer about 15 minutes.
- When the pasta is done (I cook mine al dente), drain the the water off it.
- Then, put the V-8 juice and drained pasta back into the pot. Stir it together, and then add the beans/tomatoes/meat mixture.
- Stir it well and then taste it to see if you need to add some salt or more chili powder.
- Cook it on low for about 15 or 20 minutes, and then you’re ready to serve it.
Note: The pasta will absorb a lot of the vegetable juice, and this chili will be very thick. If you prefer your chili with more liquid, you can add more V-8 juice and/or more canned tomatoes.
