Beans by request: Beanless chicken chilli with beans??!

We're on day 3 of our quest to find workable bean recipes for my dear friend Zanmei.

So, you might be wondering why a "beanless" recipe might end up in a feature on beans. But bear with me here. I understand that the recipe author was trying to help us out with a chili recipe that you didn't have to faff about soaking and cooking beans for. But maybe she didn't have a trusty pressure cooker and stash of frozen pulses like we do. So why don't we put the beans back in?

This is my favourite Christmas turkey leftover recipe, so you know it gets made at least once a year (g). It is a total doddle, and again, uses only one (admittedly large) frying pan. The last time I made it was for my crazy old colleague (or more correctly, former colleague, as I'm the elder) V, and his mom, who was visiting from the US. I still had plenty of turkey squirreled away in the freezer back then (turkey is a once-a-year affair for us here in Japan; once it's gone, no more till next Christmas), and the leftover roast really lifted this (in my opinion, of course (g)).

This time, I only had a small amount of turkey breast left, so I augmented it with a pan-fried boned chicken leg, sprinkled with some cumin and S&P before frying (leftover roast chicken would be even better, if you have any), and some lovely white beans, which make a nice contrast to the deep red of the tomatoes. It's all protein, after all. Or "all good," as V would say.

If you can, use lime juice rather than lemon as it really tastes better in this dish. If Iraqi limes are small (like those in Iran), I'd maybe go for the juice of 2 instead of 1.

We eat this with grated cheese and drained yogurt, rolled up like a burrito, and with this in mind, I probably chop the meat and veggies much smaller than the recipe author does. (Is it just me or are American recipes generally a bit fuzzy on how finely you need to do your chopping? I often have to make judgement calls on what "chopped" means.)

The original recipe is from Leanne Ely at Saving Dinner, and was kindly offered free to all members of the FlyLady group some years back. I hope she doesn't mind me reprinting it here (with my revisions), and if Zanmei makes it, I hope she will let us know. I'm sure Leanne would get a kick out of the way her recipe has travelled to Japan and now Iraq (g).

Beanless chicken chili--with beans!

(Use leftover turkey instead of or to supplement chicken)

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion -- chopped [S: finely]
4 cloves garlic -- pressed
1 red bell pepper - chopped (seeded and deribbed)
1 stalk celery -- chopped
2 jalapeno peppers - chopped (seeded and deribbed) OPTIONAL
1 -2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 28-ounce can tomatoes -- broken up [S: that's 2 x 400 g cans for us metric people, or roughly the same amount of fresh tomatoes + 1 tbsp or so of tomato paste]
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves -- cooked and chopped into 1 " pieces ~~ -- OR -- ~~4 -6 cups cooked turkey, chopped
[S: 250 g cooked beans of your choice, or a mixture]
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro [coriander] -- chopped
Juice of one lime [S: or to taste]

Instructions
In a large saucepan or skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, celery, peppers and seasonings over medium low heat for about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Stir in cooked chicken and/or turkey and cook until heated through. Before serving, add lime juice and fresh cilantro and stir gently.

**NUTRITION NOTE: Nutritional information reflects using chicken breasts, not turkey. The carb count will be the same. Per Serving: 283 Calories; 13g Fat (41.1% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 82mg Cholesterol; 273mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 1 Fat.

Enjoy!