Chicken & Crawfish Chili

This has been something unique that we pushed at the Wonder Bar as something of a signature dish. Nature has run it’s course and declared the Camembert Mac & Cheese champion comfort food, but I still like a warm bowl of chili on a cold day. I prepared this chili at the Taste Of Cleveland, but on a 85 degree day, chili isn’t gonna go over so well. Fortunately the chili got another chance this past evening at the March of Dimes benefit at the Intercontinental Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. The chili was meet with curious eyes, which quickly faded to smiles after the requested, "only a small taste please." I thought I would go ahead with the recipe, if you take the time to find all these different ingredient, then you deserve a good pot of chili.


Wonder Bar Chicken & Crawfish Chili

2 onions, diced
3 cloves garlic
1 pound cooked chicken things, pulled or pulse in food processor
1 pound cooked crawfish meat, try the Asian grocery store
1 28oz can tomato, chopped or stewed, or whole peeled that you chop
2 cups chicken stock, or base
1/4 cup each Worcestershire, apple cider vinegar
1 tsp each cumin, smoked paprika
2 tsp chili powder
4 oz un-sweetened chocolate
pinch of saffron
salt and pepper

Everything can go in the pot together and simmer for an hour or so. We just started holding the crawfish out and adding it to order since they stay much more tender this way. While there isn’t any hot sauce in this chili, there isn’t anything overly sweet so it’s stays balanced nicely by just ignoring those two extremes. I prefer mine with some croutons in the bottom of the bowl, then topped with cheese, and raw onions.