{recipe} skinny chicken taco chili

What is a girl to do when the current season is officially fall? Make chili of course!

I'm a chili-a-holic. Spicy chili, turkey chili, Mexican chili, sweet chili, etc., etc. It's one of my favorite comfort foods.

Never mind the fact that it is still 93 degrees outside by day and 80 degrees by night. Let's get it together Florida! I'm ready to whip out my boots and leggings.

I'm not going to lie, I was sweating profusely while eating this chili... while sitting under a fan, nonetheless. It was so completely worth it. While I may have been a wee bit overheated while eating this dish, I didn't have to worry about my kitchen getting overly hot while cooking it. I whipped out our brand new handy dandy crockpot! I'm not sure how I have survived three years of college without one of these. I literally threw everything into the pot at around 11 AM, then ran errands, did homework, and studied for class. I didn't even have to check up on it until 30 minutes before I wanted to dig in. It was perfection! This chili is cheap, easy, has minimal cleanup, and is perfect for roommates with different schedules. Just throw it in before you go to work or class and keep it on the "keep warm" setting so stragglers with late meetings can have a hot meal as soon as they get home.

Did I mention that this chili is pretty healthy too?

I'm not one to count calories or calculate grams of fiber but I found this recipe on a blog that does, Gina's Skinny Recipes. If you haven't ever heard of her blog, you should definitely check it out. She has a ton of great lightened up recipes to share.

So want to hear the goods?

This chili only has 203.7 calories, 1.4 fat grams, and 33.3 carbohydrate grams per serving. On top of that there are 10 grams of fiber and 16.9 grams of protein per serving! Healthy comfort food is the best kind of food.

Easy, easy, easy.

Skinny Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Recipe credit to Gina's Skinny Recipes

Ingredients: 

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 16-oz can black beans
• 1 16-oz can kidney beans
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce (I used no sodium added tomato sauce)
• 10 oz package frozen corn kernels
• 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 24 oz (3-4) boneless skinless chicken breasts
• chili peppers, chopped (optional)
• Nonfat sour cream, reduced fat shredded cheese, and 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish.

Directions:

1. Combine beans, onion, chili peppers, corn, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder and taco seasoning in a slow cooker. 
2. Place chicken on top and cover. 
3. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. (I ended up cooking the chili on low for 5 hours and high for two hours and the chicken was completely cooked through!)
4. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. (Click here for a chicken shredding tutorial! Your chicken from this recipe will literally be falling apart from simmering in the broth for so long.)
5. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Top with fresh cilantro. Also try it with low fat cheese and sour cream.

I think you could make this chili without a crock pot too. I would just make sure to cook the chicken and shred it prior to putting it into the chili to prevent any sort of contamination. You could probably just simmer the chili for about an hour in a big pot and then stir in the shredded chicken.

Also, this recipe makes quite a bit so my roommates and I decided to freeze half of the chili in a tupperware container. It freezes well. Just stick it in the refrigerator in the morning before you head off to class or work. It should be defrosted by the time you get home for dinner.

Here's to eating chili until the weather finally decides to cool down!

I'm a stubborn one after all.

xo, Jen