National Chili Day - Cajun Chili - Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals

Hubby cooked tonight! I enjoy cooking, but once in a while we all need a break, even from our favorite things. Hubby is a really good cook too, and he usually makes chili when we have it. In fact, he has modified a chili recipe that we got from his mom to become the chili that we usually have today. I will provide that recipe in a post coming up soon.

For today we are reviewing the Cajun Chili recipe that we attempted tonight for National Chili Day which is celebrated on February 23rd. We enjoy having chili or soup once or twice a week during the cold winter months and it is so good to have many options so it doesn't get old too fast.

Since Hubby was cooking tonight he took a few liberties with the recipe as he was preparing it. He opted to let the chili simmer for quite a bit longer than the recipe recommended because that is how we usually prepare our chili. He is not a fan of crunchy onions or celery in his chili, so he makes sure they simmer for quite a while to get them well softened. He is also not a fan of cornbread or the mess the boys make when they eat cornbread, so Hubby chose not to make the corn cakes in this recipe and give them some oyster crackers instead.

Chili is not a favorite for any of our boys, so we did not have high expectations for any of them enjoying this one. Hubby and I do enjoy chili during the winter, but this version was not our favorite. It was not too sweet which was a good thing, but the flavors were not very developed because it had such a short cooking time. The ingredients in the chili are very similar to what Hubby puts in our normal recipe, so the conclusion that I reach has to be the timing.

I really like the 30-minute meal concept and there are a lot of meals that it works really well for. However, there are other meals that need more time to develop and deepen flavors to be ideal. These meals that I prefer longer cooking times for can be done in our household on almost any night since I am able to be home and start meals earlier, but we still do them most often on the weekend when our schedule is usually more relaxed and we can best accommodate a longer cooking time. Sometimes we even make a larger batch so we can enjoy leftovers for a second supper size meal later in the week.

Timing: Recipe States: 30, My Actual Timing: Hubby took 45 minutes
Servings: Recipe States: 6 servings, Servings For My Family: 6 servings would have been right
Leftovers: We did not save the leftovers.


Family Ratings:
Me: This chili was okay, but it lacked the flavor that our usual child has that we simmer for a lot longer.
Hubby: He felt this chili had very little flavor and really wanted to add some beans to it.
Big Man: He ate his bowlful, but was not enthusiastic about it.
Bear: He complained about this chili, but got most of it down.
Mr. T: He requested to never have this again.

Will I repeat: No, this was not our favorite.

What will I change: We will keep making our favorite chili.