Healthy Meal: Chicken Chili

This recipe was given to me a few years ago, when I went over to my friend Tyler's house for a party. Tyler was a pretty good cook, and had made a whole pot of this chili for us to eat as we drank copious amounts of beer and played Kings. I drew the Boxhead card all four times, and so couldn't eat as much chili as everyone else because of the box. I did manage to drink a lot of Keystone, though.


Anyway, this recipe is good drunk OR sober, but I'll add that if you're drunk it totally satisfies any drunk munchie cravings but is still really healthy. It doesn't quite fit into a raw vegan diet due to the chicken, but it does satisfy my new "only eat foods that are boiled or steamed" requirement to prevent losing nutrients due to high temperature cooking.


In a crockpot, combine:
10.5 oz pink beans
10.5 oz kidney beans
10.5 oz black beans
15.5 oz cannellini beans
12 oz chicken breast, diced
1 or 2 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup chopped bell peppers (I use a frozen blend)
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (I think this is safe from salmonella because it's cooked)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp oregano
Stir, cover, and cook for 3-5 hours on high. The more you cook it, the mushier it will get and messier it will look, but the flavors meld together more - I cooked the batch above for about 4 hours. When there is about an hour or so to go, you may want to remove the lid to allow any extra liquid to boil away - a lot of this well depend whether you use fresh or frozen veggies. Then grab a spoon and dig in!

Nutrition facts:
260 calories per one cup serving (the serving in the picture above is 1.5 cups, and has made me feel absolutely stuffed)

Rating: 5 stars
This is one of my absolute favorite recipes. It's one of the first things I ever learned how to cook, and it's totally delicious as well as healthy. Tons of protein, very little fat, and deliciously spicy. To be fair, it's not a typical chili with lots of ground meat and just a few beans, but it's still pretty amazing. Because it's just protein and veggies, it's basically a complete meal in itself.