So you've been a good little prepper and stored up a years supply of beans, spices, rice, pasta and all the other staples you've been advised to buy. Maybe you've stored some canned chili or have some ground meat in your food storage. Now, what can you do with all that stuff?
If you're like me you might just make a huge pot of chili with beans. Its filling and if you have a large group of people its easy to serve everyone a bowl of chili. The leftovers are even better the second day too. Who wants to eat chili every day or every week though? Pretty soon, if you are living off of your pantry then you might get tired of that pot of chili with beans every week. NOT if you learn to use the leftovers in creative ways.
Hopefully, this post will help you with ways to use leftover chili (with or without beans) whether you buy it or make it in a large batch like I do. Often, I purposely make an extra large batch just so I can remake the leftovers into something else or so that I can pressure can the leftovers in pint jars for later meals.
Here are 33 suggestions for using chili:
1. Day one eat it plain:)
2. Day two eat it over rice or pasta.
3. Mix some chili Into homemade Mac and cheese then bake.
4. Make chili cornbread by mixing chili Into your favorite cornbread recipe. Substitute the chili for part of the liquid.
5. Make a chili casserole by layering chili with other ingredients and topping with cheese.
6. Make soup by thinning the chili with broth or water and adding other vegetables and pastas.
7. Make chili burritos or tacos for a twist on the normal Mexican flavor.
8. Make Chili lasagna for a new twist to the normal Italian lasagna.
9. Make a taco salad but use chili as the meat and corn chips for the chips.
10. Make a Mexican casserole by layering with the chili, tortillas, cheese. Bake and finish by topping with salsa and sour cream.
11. Make a chili pizza.
12. Make a chili Stromboli with pizza dough.
13. Make a Stuffed potato by adding chili and other ingredients.
14. Make a dip by stirring into sour cream then serve with crackers or chips.
15. Make a different dip by mixing with salsa.
16. Make a shepherds pie with chili as the meat.
17. Make a chili burger.
18. Make a chili sloppy joes.
19. Make chili dogs.
20. Make croquettes AKA patties using chili as the meat and sticky rice as the binder. Add an egg and a little flour and THICK chili then form patties/pyramids/logs and chill. Roll in bread crumbs and cheese then bake or pan fry.
21. Another kind of croquette can be made like above using leftover potatoes or rehydrated hash browns as the binder.
22. A third croquette can be made with leftover grits as the binder.
23. Make chili hush puppies by stirring chili into your batter before frying.
24. Make chili hash browns or fries.
25. Use chili as a topping on grits or mashed potatoes.
26. Make grilled cheese and chili sandwiches.
27. Make a chili meat loaf by adding some uncooked meat, bread crumbs, eggs, and mixing with THICK chili (not the soupy stuff) then packing it in a loaf pan and baking with your favorite chili sauce on top.
28. Make chili hoe cakes by mixing a thin cornmeal batter using the chili as the liquid then frying in a hot skillet.
29. Make stuffed peppers mixing chili with the rice before stuffing.
30. Make cabbage rolls using chili as the meat.
31. Make a chili meat pie in a pie pan with a simple crust and a cheese topping.
32. Make beanie weanies with chili instead of plain beans.
33. Make pinwheels by rolling bread or pizza dough (or canned crescent rolls) into a rectangle. Spread chili on top. Sprinkle with cheese and then roll up forming a log. Pinch the seam closed. Slice the log into pinwheels and bake on a greased cookie sheet.
So there are MY ideas for leftover chili. I'm sure you can come up with others. Feel free to share them. They won't be authentic flavors for some of the Mexican or Italian dishes but they will be just as tasty. The point is to be creative with your food pantry to prevent food fatigue and make those simple ingredients into something you and your family will look forward to eating when you are cooking with food storage.
Southern Wood Elf