Ali and Jet Tila's White Chicken Chili for Two and Mango Mez-Garitas | Food Network

Hi everyone, I'm Jet and Ali Tila Welcome to our kitchen, we're so excited to have you join us for cooking today and today we're making

white

chili

chicken

for two and a margarita. This is a classic Street Tila recipe. What we do when it's really cold in Los Angeles, when I say cold, it goes down to 50. I mean, we're going crazy, 70. Yeah, exactly, we like to serve you

white

chili

chicken

in a hollowed out bread bowl, I think it's a very good presentation and we are going to accompany it with a classic wedge salad that is Iceberg and we are going to put tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and strips of bacon and for the drink libations today we are going to serve a mezcal.

Margarita, we'll call it a mesgarita to be fancy if you've never tried Mezcal, it's a Smoky tequila uh primo and it's actually more of a grown up version of an old school margarita, but first you're going to want to grab a few things ready you want two slices of cooked bacon until they're crispy you want two hard boiled eggs peeled and then you want enough ice to shake it in your shaker and then serve it in your Margarita too I'm starving let's do this, do it Alright, for starters I'm heating up this Dutch oven and it will do double duty function.

I'm going to cut up some chicken breasts to brown them and add them back later so we don't overcook them. Ali will prepare it. secret spice blend so check it out so we're going to make our spice blend for our chili and I'm just going to take about a teaspoon of chili powder. To that I will add a teaspoon of ground cumin and a teaspoon of kosher salt. half a teaspoon of pepper and about a quarter teaspoon of dried oregano so you can make this ahead of time. You definitely know what I like to do is make large batches of this spice blend because you know some recipes that they have.

Lots of different ingredients and it's easier to make a big batch and then know it's good. I need about two tablespoons of this spice mix per pot of chili and just make a bunch and then you can dip it and use it as needed, another cool thing. What Ali does is during the holidays, she makes these big spice blends and then she labels them, she puts a little string on them and you can call it like you know a southwest blend or something like that exactly, you can give them as gifts, yeah, yeah, super fun. things okay so we have a little bit of oil in the pot and we're going to throw the chicken in we're just going to brown it because we don't want to revery Chicken in our chili at the end and in case you missed it I Ya I cut a chicken breast, but let me give you a little detail on how I like to cut it.

Do you want to stir that honey? Sure, I'll do it. There you have it. Okay, so what I like to do is have a chicken breast. whole chicken breast and I'll cut it into thirds grain first to make three planks and then I'll cut them against the grain with a little bit of a slant on the knife, which we call a bias cut and that's how you end up with These pretty planks are great for stir fry, great for stir frying, thanks. A little color and yes, it looks beautiful. Here we are going to throw them into the pan and brown them on all sides until they are lightly golden.

You don't have to cook them completely because that will happen to the chili later. Alright. I'm going to wash my hands and clean up a little. Okay Allie, what do you need? You need a little work with the knife. Done, right? Yes, would you mind cutting this bacon into cubes, half an onion and a clove of garlic? 10 4. You already have it, what do you need first? First the bacon. Okay, please, no, no, of course. Okay, knife behind, thank you, thank you. You're okay, so dicing bacon is no rocket science here. I'm going to get a clean gel board, uh, just so you know that bacon is cured, by the way, uh, but just so you know, as an extra measure of precaution, I like to take the slice of bacon. in half, line them up and it's old Tila uh cutting um uh rhyme a tile becomes a slice the slice becomes a dice so I cut it into thin slices and then the slices become a dice so that It's my favorite rhyme, why do we have it?

Good point though, why do we cook chicken once in a while and then put it back in later? a good browning, we will obtain a pleasant caramelization, a nice brown color, but since it is not fully cooked, it will finish cooking when it simmers later and that way it will not be overcooked or rubbery in all our meals of the day and at night. evening. They're a lot of fun, but this one is a little extra for me because there's a lot of kind of teamwork, there's a lot of management, it's extra, so your bacon is there Chef, thank you, your bacon is there Chef, when you're ready, I'll be there to move on to what you said garlic and onion, so I need to have half an onion diced and then a clove of garlic, in case you want that little knife skills tip.

I like to take the root side down and then I'll also do the tip of the onion so it's flat and then once you have a flat surface things won't roll up and cut you so this is the point where I will cut the onion in half and then peel it so that our chicken looks good. charred and it's wonderfully brown, we're going to add our bacon and just brown it a little bit too, that looks great and everything, all the brownies, you know, I do well the brown bits that we're getting, I love the brown bits and there's no there's oil in there so the bacon is going to render and give you a little bit of flavor exactly right great so continuing with onion 101 here's the root side.

I'm going to keep the root side on my uh. weak side of the hand, so I'm cutting because I'm right-handed, obviously I like to keep my fingers up high and I'm just going to go into the onion parallel to the cutting board, but not go all the way. up to a quarter of an inch and then I'm going to go towards the ribs, from top to bottom, without going all the way. I keep this onion together next to the root because it prevents it from splitting and sliding around on me. and then my final cut is a quarter inch slice also and in three moves you have diced an onion perfectly.

Look, I know it can be intimidating at first, but just a little practice and you'll be cutting it. like a pro are you ready for this im ready beautiful ok here we go another phenomenal tool in the kitchen that makes your life easier is a bench scraper and that is one of these types it is usually referred to as bench scraper or dough scraper, uh, but again, it really helps you gather everything you want on the board and then when you're done, it also helps you clean your boards, so okay Chef, you need garlic , you said you need garlic, how many is it, just a hint?

You got it, um, uh, if I go tooth by clove and I don't need all this, then I'll use a little bit of effort and remove the clove if I need all the garlic. I would just cut it all at once from the root and then crush it and release it from its skin, okay, when you're ready, throw it right in, you've got it, okay, so to peel the garlic I take the root side and Cut enough to grab that root and I'll eat. I generally rely on her. I support it with a knife or another tip is to take the bench scraper and just push it down and see what happens. pulls the skin well, yes it's super simple and why not keep using the bench scraper, it really makes life easier.

I also think to myself that you are going to braise this for a while, this doesn't mean a lot of liquid, yeah I don't. I need to lower this as a micro fine. Perfect. Thank you so much. You got it. Then we'll add the garlic and lower the heat of the pot and then cook until the onions are translucent. No. problem, okay, I'm going to clean your spice container, you're done, I'm, uh-huh, okay, great spices are made to perfection, I mean little things like cleaning as you go so you have more time to drink masks and have dinner. together and you know, this kind of team cooking is fun, I mean it's like a choreographed dance, it's like a tactic that you would like to use with kids like cleanups that you can drip, but for adults like he's using that on me now himself, clean like you. go because you can drink your Margarita more later and now he says that because I'm outing you.

She spent 15 years in special education as a preschool teacher, so she uses those preschool tactics with her number one son of hers, we have three, she has three. right, it looks great, you're getting a lot of color, which equals a lot of flavor exactly, so our onions are translucent and loose and it's time to add our spice mixture, add it to our onion mixture, just stir to combine and combine, a good tip here is good, just like you would sweat or sauté garlic and onion, you want to do that with spices, it's called blooming, it really opens up all the essential oils and spices because who knows how long some of your spices have been in your cupboards, guilty, that's true. guilty, this technique brings out the flavor of your spices, so you'll just stir this in until fragrant and then add your flour.

Alright, what will flour do to this recipe? Well, this is going to be our thickener, oh, okay, perfect and in the world of thickening flour, Roux cornstarch, but this is a flower, there it is, yes, we are humans, sometimes we use boxed chicken broth and not There is nothing wrong with that, it is super delicious with boxed wine, exactly what you say. When you're ready, it came in a box, you're exposing us completely, are you kidding me? Okay, okay, okay, okay and there's a whisk in that bottom place right there and so Chef talks for a moment um the flower basically the flower. gelatinizes each of the flour molecules, basically absorbs and expands, and everything together will make a nice thick soup, exactly, so we're going to want to whisk our flour into our chicken broth until there are no lumps left.

I don't want to. any chunky chili uh no not sure no good okay it's starting to thicken a little bit uh okay Ally so that already looks thick so it's starting to thicken let's turn the heat up to high and add a little. more ingredients, okay, we have drained white beans, fire roasted green chiles, uh, seasonal, if you can find New Mexico green chiles that have been roasted and diced, that's the way to go, but you know what happens if you're out of season, these canned ones. Green chiles work phenomenal and then just a pinch of sugar.

Let's balance the flavor that way. I'll get rid of these for you. They look amazing. It's going to be delicious. Do yourself a favor like a favor to do triple this. recipe and then freeze it or store it in a resealable bag or even a vacuum sealer if you have one, so it's a lot of work, that's what we do, no, we always have a good portion. I'm ready to start at any time. Over time, the flavors, yes, they get better over time, actually, I'm fine, so our chili bubbles up nicely. We're going to add our chicken back in and let it simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes.

That's beautiful, thank you. What if I wanted to use chicken? thigh, you could absolutely do that, it would be delicious, any chicken, any chicken, actually, another protein too. If you would like to use pork, classic combination of pork and green chiles. I love that there are no changes to the recipe, maybe just pork loin or even pork. shoulder and it's a one for one swap and a phenomenal green chile pork stew, okay, you've got the simmering chicken chiles. I'm going to show you how to make an old-school wedge salad with a restaurant-style blue cheese dressing. it's one of my favorite salads oh I admit it and I'm not going to lie like I'm not a big fan of blue cheese but with a dressing like that it's super delicious so starting with a sweet blue cheese and I'm going to put it on a bowl.

There are levels of blue cheese in the world. I'm going to choose a Danish blue or a sweet blue and smash it with a little bit of buttermilk. the base of this dressing I really like one of those blue cheese dressings for chunky meats and we're going to start by mashing up some blue cheese and a little bit of buttermilk. I think people are intimidated by making dressings at home it's really simple especially the kind of these creamy dressings like Ranch and Blue Cheese so the blue cheese and buttermilk work together you can imagine what it will taste like now I'm going to make it to season, so I have a little to the blue cheese base. of sour cream, just think of the flavors in here.

Spicy, a good amount of flavor there, yeah, I have some homemade mayonnaise dressings that are always a thousand percent better, especially if the sum of the parts is good, like a really great, really great mayonnaise. uh buttermilk sour cream ingredients really great right quality and quality and again you will never buy dressing again okay so for seasoning can I have a pinch of salt and pepper of course okay amazing okay, Now do I need some? spicier here and I'm going to use a little bit of white vinegar okay a little bit of vinegar for Tang a little bit of garlic powder yeah Ally if you don't mind you want to start making our wedges sure and I.

I'm going toseriously, that's delicious

food

, regards, regards, um, that's nice fruity. Smoky, yes, and I love the spice mix of chili, lime on the edge of the rib, it tastes grown-up. Prepared version of a margarita very excited for you to try it, I think it's, I think it's delicious, very Trend Alley, yeah, very, very fancy, okay, how do we do this? I'm going in, uh, actually I'm going in. right into the stew I'm going to try the salad okay perfect chicken chili is perfect chicken chili is the perfect descriptor because it has that warm spice it's creamy but it has that nice body like a traditional chili and then with a little bowl of bread that's amazing, really great when the temperature drops to 50 or 60 degrees here in Los Angeles, everyone else in the country, but it's so cold, yeah, right when we're crying at 50 degrees I love the salad it's fresh you have eggs chewy creamy delicious excellent bacon umami and a nice bite of blue cheese I really really like this it's that old school salad you crave and get every time you go to a steakhouse what a great combination really fun for a date night at home with your loved one, so thank you for taking our class.

We hope you had a lot of fun cooking with us because we have a lot of fun cooking. with you