How to Make Chef John's Chili Bean Chicken
Craving a comfort food twist? In this video, Chef John shows you how to make his famous Chili Bean Chicken! This easy-to-follow recipe combines tender chicken with a flavorful chili-spiced white bean sauce. Perfect for a cozy weeknight dinner, get ready to be amazed by this unexpected flavor explosion!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with chili bean chicken.
00:08That's right, I couldn't decide whether I wanted chicken chili or maybe a roast chicken
00:12with barbecue beans.
00:14So I ended up making this, which was both.
00:17Well, actually it was both both.
00:19It was both the things I wanted and it was also both very easy and very delicious.
00:25To get started, we will add some roasted tomato salsa to a large mixing bowl and this
00:30one was homemade by Rick Bayless in one of his factories and then sold in a store.
00:36And then to that, we will add some ketchup as well as our favorite barbecue sauce.
00:41All right, anything will work, so dealer's choice.
00:45And then the same goes for the next ingredient, which is mustard.
00:47All right, I'm using yellow, but use whatever you want.
00:51And then we'll also want to add some apple cider vinegar.
00:54And I attempted to rinse some of the mustard off the spatula, which really didn't work,
00:59but that's fine.
01:00A lot of things don't work.
01:02And then to balance all these sharp acidic ingredients, we'll toss in some brown sugar.
01:07And then last but not least, a nice big splash of cold fresh water.
01:11And then before we add our beans and spices, I'm going to go ahead and grab a whisk and
01:15give this a thorough mix, although I'm really not exactly sure why.
01:20And then as far as the beans go, I'm going to use both cannellini beans, which is a beautifully
01:24meaty white Italian bean, as well as some pinto beans, which is one of my favorite chili
01:30beans.
01:31But really, any varieties are going to work here, so you decide.
01:35I mean, you guys are after all the Tommy Tunes of which legumes.
01:40And then at this point, we can add our spices, starting with some nice chili powder, as well
01:44as some smoked paprika, some ground cumin, which is pretty much a mandatory ingredient
01:50in any kind of chili, I think.
01:52And then we'll finish up with some garlic powder, some freshly ground black pepper,
01:58some salt of course, and a good amount of it.
02:01And then last but never ever least, a nice touch of cayenne.
02:05And then the only actual fresh vegetation I'm going to throw in here is some sliced
02:09green onions, which I guess are optional, but they only take a few seconds to slice.
02:15And that's it.
02:16We'll grab a spoon to give this a nice mix before we transfer that into a nice large
02:19casserole dish.
02:21And I'm going to use a nice deep one that's 10 by 15 inches, which as you'll see is
02:25going to give me plenty of room to do eight chicken thighs.
02:28And once we have that carefully transferred in, we'll take our spoon and sort of stir
02:32and poke around, just to make sure those beans are fairly evenly distributed.
02:37And then as I like to say, it's never too late to remember what you forgot, which in
02:42my case was a little bit of dried Mexican oregano, which I will almost always add to
02:46a chili, since it's so good and fragrant.
02:50So I sprinkled that over before tossing in my boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
02:55And what we want to do here is make sure those thighs are coated on both sides before we
02:59squeeze that together back into a chicken thigh shape.
03:03And the reason I don't like to cook the chicken thighs all spread out is because I want them
03:07to cook a little slower.
03:09And by sort of rolling and squeezing them back into their original shape, we're going
03:12to have a smaller, denser, tighter package.
03:15Plus we're rolling up that very flavorful sauce on the inside, which while I can't prove
03:20it, is probably a really good idea.
03:23And then once our chili beans have been chickened, we'll want to make sure those are evenly spaced
03:28and almost but not quite submerged.
03:31And that's it.
03:32Once we're happy with our positioning, we will possibly wipe some of the drips off the
03:35edge of the dish before we transfer this into the center of a 375 degree oven for, believe
03:42it or not, about an hour and a half or until it looks like this.
03:46Oh yeah, that is looking good.
03:49Although at first glance it might look a little bit dry, but it is not.
03:53Okay, the reason we added that big splash of water was so this didn't get too thick
03:57like baked beans.
03:58Okay, I really wanted to go for more of a chili-like texture.
04:02And then as far as the garnish goes, since I already had them, I scattered over a few
04:06more freshly sliced green onions.
04:09And that's it.
04:10After letting it rest for just a few minutes, I went ahead and spooned up one portion.
04:14And after spooning in the appropriate amount of extra beans, I finished the top with a
04:18little bit of sauce, so it would be nice and shiny for the pictures.
04:22And also tossed on one more pinch of green onion, at which point I grabbed a spoon and
04:27a knife and went in for the official taste.
04:30Although we really don't need the knife here, since after that long bake, this should be
04:34fork and or spoon tender.
04:36But you know me and trying to eat on camera, I always have a tough time, so I was hedging
04:41my bets.
04:42And that, my friends, is every bit as delicious as you would imagine it would be.
04:46OK, I love a good chicken chili, and this really did have a very similar flavor profile.
04:52But unlike chicken chili, it was kind of nice to have the big pieces of meat.
04:57And if you've been watching the channel for a while, you know one of my favorite things
05:00to do is take two recipes I love and try to mash them together to make a new recipe I'm
05:05going to love even more, which sometimes like this works incredibly well, and then a lot
05:10of times doesn't work at all, and it's a huge failure.
05:14But as you probably heard me say before, we should always want to be trying new things.
05:17OK, if we're not trying new things, what kind of things are we going to be trying?
05:23And yes, you can do this with chicken breast, but I wouldn't, since thighs are great cooked
05:27this long, especially in a sauce like this.
05:30But after an hour and a half, chicken breasts are going to be way too dry.
05:33So if you do use breasts, I would give the beans about an hour head start, and then toss
05:37the chicken in, and simply continue baking until they're cooked through.
05:41But whether you tweak this recipe, or make it as shown, I really did love everything
05:46about this.
05:47And whether you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner, or something to take to the next potluck,
05:52I really do hope you give this a try soon.
05:55So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
06:00more info as usual.
06:03And as always, enjoy!