This chicken chili is pretty good.

This chicken chili is pretty good. I’m not wild about it. You won’t see any exclamation marks in this post.

It comes from Barefoot Contessa: Parties. I am wild about the Barefoot Contessa. I will give her three exclamation marks: !!!

But this chili is a little soupy and a little ridiculous in that her recipe feeds 12, so halving it feeds 6. That’s ridiculous!

With that said, it lacks that certain snap and excitmenet of real, meaty chili. Maybe this isn’t a critique of Contessa chicken chili, but chicken chili in general.

Contessa chicken chili has onions, peppers, and garlic:

There is also a bevy of spices, but not too big a bevy (which is why it maybe lacked punch?):

Let’s see there’s cumin, and chili powder, and cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes, and salt. (I feel like that lady with the magic mirror on Romper Room.)

The Contessa has you roast chicken breasts with bones in and skin on in a 350 degree oven:

I think they came out really pretty but now that I think about it, I think this step is a waste of time. Just buy an already roasted chicken—it’s cheaper and saves you time. You’re just pulling the skin off and using the meat. (Or, if you’re me, you nibble at the skin, feel guilty, and nibble some more.)

And that’s it. The chili tastes good and bright and fresh. (I think “bright” is the nicest word you can use to describe it.) It definitely benefits by the addition of sour cream (see lead photo) and the use of tortilla chips to eat the chili with. And it’s healthy—let’s give it that. I mean, it has only 1/4 cup of olive oil in it and that’s the only fat. Plus I will eat it for the next few days and still have more to freeze. So these are all nice things about this chili. In fact, I will end with an exclamation mark.

!