Speaking as, ahem, the winner of several chili cook-offs, the most recent one at my TV station a couple weeks back, I’m pretty confident in my Chocolate Chipotle Chili recipe.  It beat out my co-worker’s venison chili, which got me thinking about deer meat.  I’ve actually never cooked with venison before.  It brings me back to memories of eating at my boyfriend’s house in high school.  His Dad was an avid hunter and made absolutely delicious venison steaks– they were never tough or gamey.  When my friend offered up a couple pounds of ground venison, I was stoked. “Thanks, dear!” Or rather, “Thanks, DEER!”

I mixed in some spicy sausage and made the main veggie shiitake mushrooms which lent a really nice earthiness to the overall body of the chili.  I usually add a touch of sweet to my chili to offset the acidic tomato element— instead of brown sugar, I just added 2 Tb of Grade B Maple syrup.  It was subtle and just the right amount.  Try it.  You’ll love it.  And technically, it’s still low carb, since there isn’t a bean in sight!  Can’t wait to enter this recipe into my next chili competition!!

Try serving it with my equally delicious jalapeño cornbread.

I used to be a white meat girl.  And over the many years that I dieted on and off, I began to dread the “steamed/baked/no skin/boneless chicken breast” that every damn starve yourself skinny low calorie/drop weight quick plan calls for.  Well, woman cannot live on white meat alone.  Especially on a low carb/high fat lifestyle.  Bring on the dark meat, baby!  Haaaaaaay!

There’s so much more flavor and, well, fat, in dark meat.  I know some of y’all can’t bear the thought of chewing around the bone, but the most flavorful cuts are the bone in, skin on variety.  When you saute these bad boys in butter, the skin gets a gorgeous golden color and stays decadently crispy.  I added pancetta to this dish to get a little fancy, but you can just snip some pieces of bacon in for the same effect.

This is one recipe that demands a cast iron skillet or one of those ceramic casserole dishes (pictured below).  Remember, the key to browning chicken beautifully is to DRY IT OFF WITH PAPER TOWELS. AND YES, I’M YELLING THIS!!!  When you take chicken out of the package, it’s gonna be wet and will not brown evenly if you toss it in the pan like that.  Dry those thighs off, GURL.  My go-to combo for browning meat is a 2/1 ratio of butter to oil.  You can use salted or unsalted butter and your favorite oil– I usually do olive or a canola blend.  Once the butter is bubbly on med/high heat, put the thighs in skin side down and then don’t touch them for 10 whole minutes.  I add garlic and bay leaves for extra flavor in the pan.  Then, flip over after 10 minutes, leave them for another 10, then flip over one more time. So, a total of 30 minutes.  Then, add in about 1/4 cup of white wine or dry sherry, crank up the heat, and let the wine cook off for 5 minutes.  Boom.  You’re done.

Note to self:  Get olives WITHOUT the pits next time!  And as someone who normally hates leftovers, this dish keeps well through the next day.  Just pop it in the oven at 400 to warm it up for about 10 minutes and it’ll ‘re-crisp’ right up.  Nuking it– not so much.  That formerly crispy skin will get soggy and meh.

Mediterranean chicken thighs— OLIVE you.

Love me some shrimp.  This is slam dunk delish and super easy.  If you’re doing low carb, opt for a lettuce wrap or use a cabbage leaf for your “taco.”  The chipotle creme fraiche packs so much flavor, combined with the spicy kick of the shrimp.  Did I mention I love me some shrimp??  Almost as much as Bubba!

There’s something about using the word smothered in the same sentence as bacon and cheese that just really gets me going….I mean, look at that melty delish.  It’s Level 10, y’all.  And it’s totally low carb perfection.  The mayo layer in this recipe isn’t totally necessary, but it just makes it even creamier and gooey-er.  Do it.

There are a few easy steps to make this melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.  First, saute red onion (cut into rings) in butter until it starts to caramelize, about 20 minutes.  Then add in a couple fresh jalapenos and 5 slices of bacon cut up.  Saute until bacon is done, another 10-15 minutes.  There’s nothing in the world like the smell of bacon and onion sauteeing in a pan together.  A girlfriend of mine once said that when she invited a date over for dinner, no matter what she was cooking, she would fry up onions and bacon– and the dude was instantly hooked.  (On her and whatever she was serving up that night!)

I like to take my time with the onions and really get them soft and caramelized.  They’re so good, I had to stop myself from eating them straight out of the pan!

While the onion mixture is cooking, start grilling your chicken.  I use a grill pan with a combo of butter and oil and cook about 2/3 of the way through.  These were super thick breasts, so I did about 10 minutes on each side and then they’ll cook the rest of the way when you pop them in the oven.  Key to perfect chicken is to dry the meat off with paper towels so the pieces cook evenly.  I always use a 2/1 ration of butter to oil (2 Tb butter to 1 Tb of olive/coconut/canola oil– whatever oil you want to use.  I season both sides of the chicken with a combo of paprika and steak seasoning.

Mix a cup of mayo with 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, a 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder and onion powder with a pinch of kosher salt.  Slather that on the chicken breasts and put in a casserole dish.

Then, spoon the yummy jalapeño, bacon, caramelized onion goodness on top of the chicken.

Put some smoked gouda slices on top of that. (I used 5).

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes (or a few minutes more if the chicken is super thick) and broil for one minute to brown the cheese.

Dive into delish!  ERMAHGAWD.  So. Damn. Good.

Note: There will be some greasy puddles at the bottom of the casserole because of the fat from the mayo and cheese, but just use a slotted spoon to scoop out the bacon and onion that slips into the bottom of the casserole dish.  When I was cleaning up my kitchen later, I found myself using my, uh, fingers, to grab those buttery, yummy stray pieces of bacon.  Oh yeah, baby!