i am a food blog

Whew – I can’t believe Christmas is over. I hope yours was a good one! We had a ton of food, as per usual, and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I had a legit food coma. I’m talking about seriously passed out on the couch, with my little food belly peeking out from under my cozy winter sweater. It was a throughly good time, but now it’s almost New Years, I’m going to start thinking about some resolutions that involve not over-eating.

Do you guys have New Year’s plans? Mike and I spent the last two years spending New Years in Tokyo, so it’s a bit of a novelty to be in town. We’re not quite sure what our plans are yet, but if it’s up to me, these little chili chicken cups topped with sour cream might be in the picture. To be honest, New Year’s isn’t something that I get super excited about.

What I do get excited about, nerdily enough, is cool packaging, so no joke, when I first saw the squeeze bottles of Daisy Sour Cream at the store, I squealed a little. It was perfect because just the night before I was telling Mike not to use the salsa spoon to dig into the sour cream tub. With this squeeze bottle, you can just squeeze sour cream wherever you need/want it, no dirty spoons necessary. Perfect for squeezing on these little chicken chili cups.

To be honest, these little chili cups almost didn’t happen. I was planning on making them but somehow I managed to mix up my dates – long and boring story short, I am happy to say that these guys did happen thanks to a good friend. So, shoutout to my favorite friend, Bruce, who picked this sour cream up for me while I was off on vacation, just so I could have it waiting for me when I got home. He had to do a crazy scavenger hunt for it because it’s so popular that it’s been sold out at all of the local grocery stores. He went to three(!) stores before picking out the most perfectly photogenic squeeze bottle. True friendship!

Mini Chicken Chili Cups adapted from my cookbook, Easy Gourmet
makes enough chili for 4-6 and as many chili cups as needed
prep time: 30 minutes
cook time: 1 hour
total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Chili

• 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 red pepper, diced
  
• 1-2 fresno chilis, diced, optional
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 28 ounce can whole tomatoes
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Tortilla Chili Cups

• flour tortillas, as needed
• shredded cheddar
• cubed avocado
• sliced green onions, to garnish
• Daisy Squeeze sour cream

Add a bit of oil to a deep, heavy-bottomed pot. Heat over medium high until hot and then add the chicken and brown, breaking up until crumbly and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the pot and set aside.

Add the onion, garlic, red pepper, fresnos (if using) carrot, celery, and spices to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add the chicken and the tomatoes back in, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Turn down the heat and let simmer until thick, stirring occasionally, 30-40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Use a 3 inch cookie cutter to cut rounds out of the tortillas. Save the tortilla scraps to make chips with. Push the tortilla rounds into a mini muffin tin and bake until slightly golden and crisp, 5-7 minutes. Let cool in the tin and remove carefully.

Fill the cups with chili and top with shredded cheddar, avocado, green onions and a squeeze of Daisy Sour cream. Enjoy!

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