Comfort Food!! Chicken & Sweet Potato Chili



Just because you don't have diabetes doesn't mean you can't eat like a diabetic.

Today we celebrated Martin Luther King's day which meant federal holiday! Paige and I were discussing meal planning at church last night and neither one of us are fans, but with families know the necessity of planning. If I don't plan my meals we end up eating things we don't need to eat or I spend extra precious evening minutes walking from the pantry to the fridge and back to the pantry.

I am getting tired of the same ole' meals so I spend time this weekend turning pages in my recipe books in hopes of finding something new to try. My plan was to cook “Chicken & Sweet Potato Chili” last night after church that I found in this Diabetic Cooking magazine. However, after a full day of church, plus hospital visits and grocery shopping we were tired plus my knee was tired and hurting and I still had to do my therapy! So when Mary Jane mentioned Fish Tacos at Long John Silvers were only a $1, Darryl said, “lets’s just grab something to eat so you don’t have to cook”. No cooking? Hmmm, let’s see that was an easy decision. Although it was very tasty and very cheap, I prefer grilled fish and corn tortillas.



I discovered that 3/4 pound of chicken was about 2 chicken breasts.

So with my new Anthropologie apron and Darryl with a knife in his hands we made Chicken & Sweet Potato Chili. Here is the recipe as posted and my pictorial of the few changes I made and you will notice I didn't get pictures of each step.

1 to 2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup of chopped onion
¾ pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (or chicken tenders) cut into ¾ inch chunks*
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 can (14 ½ ounces) diced fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 can (16 ounces) no-salt added kidney beans or pinto beans, drained
½ cup chipotle or jalapeno salsa

*this is easier to do if the chicken is partially frozen

1.   Place sweet potatoes in large saucepan. Add enough water just to cover sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes or until almost tender. Drain mixture with colander into dry saucepan. Add oil to same saucepan. Add onion; cook over medium heat 5 minutes.

2.   Add chicken, garlic and chili powder to same saucepan; cook 3 minutes stirring frequently. Add tomatoes with their juices, beans, salsa and partially cooked sweet potatoes; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4 servings – (1 ½ cup servings) 6 points plus

Note: Sweet potatoes are the star of this chili and they’re nutritional superstars, too. One sweet potato provides about two and half times the RDA for healthy adults of vitamin A, plus fiber, potassium and vitamin C.


I did not use a full cup of onion or did I have on hand no-salt added beans, but I rinsed them well!
I also couldn't find the chipotle or jalapeno salsa, so we went with the habanera.



Step one, boiling the sweet potatoes. Forgot to get a picture of draining the sweet potatoes in the colander. :(

Cooking the onion. I only used about 1/2 cup instead of the full cup of onions.

Cooking the chicken with the onions, garlic and chili powder.

Adding the tomatoes, kidney beans, salsa and the partially cooked sweet potatoes.

The final product!

For only 6 points you get a huge helping! It was very good! Next time I think I will add more garlic or garlic powder.