Golden Chili with Caramelized Onion and Sausage

By Paul Briand

A chili recipe won the MarxFoods.com comfort food recipe contest that I entered a couple of weeks back.

The winner -- Golden Chili with Caramelized Onion and Sausage -- came from Jessica in Columbus, Ohio, who has her own recipe blog called Sweet Peas and Pumpkins.

The contest featured more than 150 recipes, including my Mac & Cheese with Bacon and Scallops. It didn't make the cut of the 27 finalists.

What's interesting was the interpretation of just what is comfort food. According to Marx Foods, the most popular submission was macaroni and cheese recipes followed by soups, desserts, vegetable side dishes, stew, chicken pot pie and chicken recipes.

Jessica's chili recipe was followed in second by a recipe for Dungeness Crab-a-Roni and Cheese; third was a Creamy Tomato Basil Soup recipe.

Here's the winner:

Ingredients
2 onions, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 jalapeños, deseeded and minced
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder (regular is fine too)
2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
1 1/4 pounds (one package) of Turkey Italian Sausage
2 cups of chicken broth
2 - 15 ounce cans chickpeas
1 -15 ounce can pinto beans
1 - 15 ounce can creamed corn

Directions
1. In a large stock pot, heat the oil to medium heat and add the onion,
2. Cook until caramelized, about 10 minutes,
3. Add the garlic, jalapeño, cumin, chili powder and oregano, cook for another 2-3 minutes,
4. Add the sausage, breaking it up with the spoon into small pieces (make sure you remove the casing first to make this easier),
5. Once the sausage is browned and no longer pink inside, deglaze the pan (basically, just pour the broth into the hot pan) and scrape the pan to get all those yummy bits off the bottom,
6. Add 1 can of the chickpeas and the pinto beans,
7. In a blender, puree the second can of chickpeas and creamed corn (this gives the chili a better consistency and adds two 'hidden' vegetables to the chili),
8. Add the mixture to the chili,
9. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the chili is the desired consistency,
10. If it gets too thick, just add some chicken broth or even a beer to thin it out,
11. Top with shredded cheese, sour cream and green onion.
Jessica says on her blog that she set out one day to cook a white chili and after some experimenting ended up with the one she described as golden ... appropriate.