Simmering a chili with white and dark turkey meat was obvious, but roasted poblanos add a smokiness and intensity. Instead of Buffalo wings, we made the dish using white-meat chicken tenders, marinated them in Frank’s Hot Sauce with honey, garlic, and a splash of tequila, and stirred together a blue cheese sauce based on low-fat Greek yogurt. Marinating the chicken overnight and leaving the sauce to mellow for a day make both tenders and their dip truly delectable. The classic seven-layer dip is now five, with dark beans forming one layer, then cheese, salsa spiked with sriracha, more yogurt, and a topping of chopped pickles, olives, and toasted pumpkin seeds. Add two dips - a creamy hummus that turns bright green with frozen peas and another of spinach mixed with feta - and the table felt full.
For crackers, we used scissors to snip flat sheets of Middle Eastern lavash into several rectangular sizes (or do the same thing with large pita), sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and crushed hot peppers, and toasted them until golden. They’re addictive.
The game is what should be heart-stopping, not the food.
Sheryl Julian can be reached at julian@globe.com.
To make Patriots logo crackers (a labor of love)
Use your browser to search for an online image of the New England Patriots logo. You want one that when printed out will be between about 6 and 12 inches wide. Images that are too small or too big can be resized in an image-editor such as Photoshop or Picasa, or even by copying and pasting the image into a Word document and adjusting the size by pulling on its corners. Since you only need an outline to trace, how sharp the image is doesn’t matter.
Cut out your image. This is a template to place on a piece of Middle Eastern lavash, or on one side of a large pita that has been separated into two rounds. Use scissors or the tip of a sharp knife to cut it out, following the template. Make one or many. Set them on a baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with oil and kosher salt. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, checking often to make sure the edges do not burn.
Turkey chili with roasted poblano peppers
