The first thing that popped up in my mind when I heard the word “chili” was normally chili con carne, which pretty much means chili with meat in Spanish language. It’s a kind of stew with chili peppers and meat. The green chili though is somewhat different compare to chili con carne. It still uses meat, however, it doesn’t look “red” like the chili con carne does. As shared by Jamie Oliver in his Jamie’s America (yes, I’m still cooking with that cookbook. It rocks!), green chili is cleaner, braver, and fresher than your average chili. I love how the sage flavors up the meat. The chili peppers really give that kick I need. Wrap the meat with lettuce, tortilla (or flat bread or naan if you have) and topped with sour cream… we were speechless. So easy to make it is guaranteed a crowdpleaser.
JAMIE OLIVER'S GREEN CHILI
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 ¾ lbs ground pork or ground beef
- 1 tsp dried sage
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 onions , peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 green bell peppers , seeded and roughly chopped
- 6 small green chiles (less if you don't want too spicy), roughly chopped
- 4 large , ripe red tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
- 1 romaine lettuce , leaves washed and spun/pat dry
- A small bunch of fresh mint (leaves picked)
- 4 scallions
- 1 package flour tortillas
- 1 lime
- Sour cream or natural yogurt
Instructions
- Put a large saucepan on a high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the ground meat, dried sage, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Use a wooden spoon to break the meat up a bit and stir it about, then cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally
- Add onions, garlic, bell peppers, and chiles, stir everything together, then fry for 15 minutes on a high heat until any liquid from the meat has evaporated and everything is starting to turn golden. When it looks good, stir in your chopped tomatoes and about 1/4 cup of water. Remember that it's supposed to be quite dry (in a really wholesome and nice way), not stewy and wet, so don't add too much water
- Turn the heat down to medium and let it tick away for 10 minutes or so while you wash and roughly chop up the lettuce. Pick the leaves from the bunch of mint and roughly chop them. Trim and thinly slice your scallions
- When you're ready to serve the chili, warm your tortillas in the oven at 350 F for a few minutes or in a dry pan for 30 seconds. Taste your dense chili, More than likely it will need another good pinch of salt and pepper. Squeeze in the juice of one lime. Stir in half of your chopped mint
- Push a warm tortilla into each of your little bowls and spoon some delicious green chili on top of each one. Top with your chopped lettuce and a dollop of yogurt. Sprinkle over the rest of your mint and the scallions and serve right away
