Sweet and Spicy Chili with Skillet Cornbread

I love soups, stews, and chili. For years my go-to chili recipe was a spicy black bean chili. Then one day I came home and my then-roommate Maureen and her then-boyfriend (now husband) were making their own version of chili. They were nice enough to leave out a separate pot of non-meat chili for me, and it was delicious. I learned the ultimate secret to making chili - molasses. It gives it that delicious baked bean flavor all in chili form. I don't really follow a recipe when I make this, I kind of just eyeball everything and then taste until I have the flavor right, but I will try to share roughly my recipe with you anyway!

Sweet & Spicy Chili
1 Large onion, diced
1-2 Red bell peppers, diced
1 Jalapeno, diced finely
1 Serrano chili, diced finely
Optional: Additional peppers, sometimes I add small yellow peppers as well
Optional: Vegetarian ground beef (or maybe real ground beef, but I don't know how to tell you to cook that!)
2 15oz Cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz Can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz Can white beans, drained and rinsed
2 15 oz Cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 Tbs chili powder
1 Tsp Cumin
1/2 Tsp Cayenne powder
1/2 - 1 Cup Dark Molasses (this one I eyeball and taste for sweetness vs. spiciness)
Salt & Pepper as needed (I never remember this part)

If using the vegetarian ground beef (or non-vegetarian I suppose), start by cooking that first. Then add the onions and assortment of peppers - cook until tender. Add spices, beans, and tomatoes with their juice. Simmer for 30 minutes before adding the molasses to taste. Check for sweetness - you definitely want to be able to taste the molasses but you should still get a kick of spice. I usually just hold the molasses bottle upside down for several seconds, taste, and then try again.

This past week I decided that cornbread would be a really good addition to the chili, so I looked for a recipe at one of my favorite websites, VegWeb.com. I found one that was rated well, and it was made in a skillet which I thought was cool. The only problem was they didn't specify the size of the skillet and my first attempt resulted in cornbread overflowing all over my oven and setting of smoke alarms.


The second attempt was much better. I used half of this recipe and used a 10" cast iron skillet. There were no cornbread explosions in my oven, only delicious cornbread served alongside the sweet and spicy chili. I don't think I'll ever go back to the way I used to make it!