Green Chili with Tortilla Chips

I had a can of Green Chili Enchilada Sauce in my cupboard that a friend had given to me a few months ago to make chicken enchiladas with. I was not in the mood to make enchiladas but I wanted to use the green chili, but I was stumped as to what to make.

I tweeted and posted to Facebook my dilemma and asked for some suggestions. After several individuals contacted me with suggestions, I decided to combine an idea that someone on Twitter gave me, with an idea that a friend on Facebook gave me.

It was a pure experiment tonight that could go either way; really good, or really bad.

With husband being the taste tester, I really wanted to ensure that it was going to be really good.

My Twitter suggestion was to make meatballs with green chili sauce and crumbled tortilla chips on top, and my Facebook suggestion was to make chili.

I was not in the mood to cook this for a long time and was trying to eliminate the length of cooking time.

So I decided to simply fry the beef, not make it into meat balls, and go with the chili. But I crumbled the tortillas over top.

Both my husband and I were a little unsure of how this would turn out, so I was really conservative with the amount I crumbled over at first. But after the first bite, my husband was headed back to the kitchen to add more.

He made a really great suggestion (and told me to make sure I shared this suggestion here with you all!) that we're going to try out next time I make this, and that is using the chili-lime tortilla strips that Taco Bell uses. I am not sure if I can purchase something like this in our regular grocery store, so we might have to go to Taco Bell and see about purchasing some from there.

This chili was so amazing that my husband has told me that I "better make sure to make it again, SOON!". Such a wonderful compliment to me.

I hope that when you try this recipe, you'll love it just as much as we did.

Happy Cooking, Happy Eating!


Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 spring onion, sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garlic powder
1 large can Green Chili Enchilada Sauce

1. Fry the beef until cooked through, drain off any excess oil, DO NOT RINSE BEEF. Set aside.
2. Fry onions and garlic in the same pot the beef was cooked in, utilizing residual fat from the beef as oil. Cook until the onions begin to brown. Add bell pepper and spring onion. Cook red pepper until slightly "singed", but not burned. Return the cooked ground beef to the pot and mix well.
3. Add the spices and combine in with the meat mix, then add the can of green chili. Cook on low-medium heat for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally ensuring no mix sticks to bottom on the pot and burns. Once mixture has reduced by about 1/3 - 1/2 and thickened, it is ready to serve.

Serve with white rice and roughly crumbled tortilla chip strips.