Chili Poblano Recipe

This chili poblano recipe topped with cheesy grits is a Southerners take on shepherd’s pie. A poblano flavored chili bursting with flavor from beef, pork and butternut squash. The perfect comfort food, Southern style.

The weather has turned frigid, it’s not supposed to be in the single digits in the Carolinas! Perfect weather for a hot, filling meal. I love that you can make chili in so many ways and none will taste anything like the other.

Lately I’ve made Chili with Chocolate and Cincinnati style chili, but I know you’re going to love a chili poblano recipe as we combine Tex-Mex flavors with a Southern staple – grits! This recipe is like a chili casserole or it could just as easily be called shepherd’s pie, topped with cheesy grits in place of traditional mashed potatoes.

While I still love a big piece of Brown Butter Corn Bread with chili for a hearty meal, substituting cornbread or mashed potatoes with grits is amazing.

If you’re not familiar with grits, just watch My Cousin Vinnie and you’ll know that they take 20 minutes to cook! No self-respecting Southerner uses instant grits so you’ll have to use the real deal in this recipe.  But while you’re browning the meat and veggies, your grits can be cooking away. Grits are so much easier to make than potatoes, and you can keep a bag on hand in your pantry.

What are grits

Grits are made from dried ground corn, so like corn you can get them white or yellow. White is the most popular in my area of the country. They’re cooked with water until they become creamy. Most of the flavor comes from whatever is added to them like butter or cheese. Instant grits taste pretty bland, but if you get stone ground they will taste so much better. We have a mill in Greensboro, Old Mill of Guilford that supplies stone ground grits to our farmer’s market, they’re my favorite and you can order from them on line.

You can use any of your favorite chili recipes in place of this one and top it with grits, you just need to cook down the chili so that it’s not soupy.

Why you’ll love a chili poblano recipe

• Squash and poblanos add a great flavor along with two kinds of meat.
• With the grits on top, it’s like a chili casserole.
• Grits are a nice change from traditional cornbread.
• Grits are a Southern speciality and are not just for breakfast.
• You can freeze the leftovers for hearty lunches.

What you’ll need for poblano chili

• Italian sausage & ground beef – lots of flavor built in
• Poblano peppers – a naturally mild pepper but still adds some hat
• Butternut squash – healthy & it adds a great flavor, you can find it pre-chopped in the vegetable section of the grocery
• Onion – yellow or white will work
• Black beans – these are completely optional so leave them out if you’re not a fan
• Diced tomatoes – you can use diced tomatoes or rotel for extra spice
• Pantry staples – chicken stock, tomato paste, garlic cloves, cumin, chili powder, salt & pepper

What you’ll need for cheesy grits

• Uncooked stone ground grits – it takes on the flavor of what’s cooked with it
• Cheddar cheese – cheese always makes things better
• Cilantro – a light fresh flavor with the corn
• Eggs – binds the grits together

How do you make chili casserole

Step 1 – Chili

Brown sausage and ground beef and remove to a bowl. Cook onions and peppers and garlic. Add tomato paste, chili powder, and cumin and cook stirring for about 1 minute.

Step 2

Add meat back to the pot along with squash, black beans and tomatoes with liquid. Cook until the squash is slightly tender and the chili is fairly thick.

Step 3 – Grits

While the chili is cooking make the grits. In a large saucepan, bring 3 ½ cups of water to a boil. Whisk in grits and turn heat down to medium low. Cook stirring often until tender and thick about 20 minutes. Remove and whisk in cheese and cilantro.

Step 4

Gradually stir about one fourth of the grits into the slightly beaten eggs and gradually add the egg mixture to the remaining grits. You don’t want the eggs to curdle from the hot grits.

Step 5

Place the chili in a casserole dish and cover the grit mixture. Bake until the grits are set and golden and chili is slightly bubbly, about 25-30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Pro tip: When making grits, if you let them boil too hard, the hot grits can splash out and burn you, so keep the temperature on medium to low.

This comfort food recipe has lots of surprises. First, it’s not going to be a soupy veggie filled chili. You need it to be pretty thick or the grits won’t stay on top. When served, this is more like a casserole. The flavors are amazing with butternut squash and poblano peppers. You can make it less spicy by leaving out the seeds from the poblanos. Substitute your favorite casserole flavors and meat but just make sure the end product is on the thick side which means you’ll probably need to cut the liquid.

While most of the time I would add butter to the top of my grits, I have to admit, this dish doesn’t need any extra butter.  It makes a lot and is pretty filling, so it’s great if you’ve got a bunch of people hungry for dinner. It also freezes well. I wasn’t sure if the grits would get soggy after being frozen, but just heat it up in the oven and the textures stay the same.

Recipe notes

• If you don’t like any spice, you can omit the poblano pepper and try a sweet green pepper in its place.
• Throw in a cup of frozen corn
• Substitute rotel tomatoes with green chiles in place of the diced tomatoes
• Use pepper jack cheese in place of cheddar cheese.
• Chorizo would be a delicious ground meat to take the place of the Italian sausage

What can you serve with chili poblano?

• You can make a simple salad to go along with this that’s healthy and light like this corn and cucumber salad or zucchini caprese salad.
• If you still want bread, try something other than cornbread like a pull apart bread.

FAQs and tips

More hearty dinners

Adapted from Southern Living October 2017