Chili & Cornbread

Chili packed hot in a thermos with cornbread on the side, gluten free. Which seasoning packets hide wheat, and what to use when the boxed mix runs out.

Makes

4 lunches

Hands on

25 min

Start to finish

60 min

Keeps

4 days in the fridge, and the chili is better on day two

• 1 poundground beef
• 1onion, chopped
• 2 clovesgarlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoonschili powderPlain single spice chili powder, not a chili seasoning packet. The packets are often thickened with wheat flour.
• 1 teaspoonground cumin
• 1 candiced tomatoes
• 1 cankidney beans, drained and rinsedPlain beans in water. Beans sold in chili sauce often carry a wheat thickener.
• 1 cupbeef stockSome stocks and bouillon cubes flavor with wheat or barley.
• salt
• 1 cupcornmealCorn has no gluten, but plenty of cornmeal is milled where wheat is milled, so look for a bag marked gluten free.
• 1/2 cupgluten free all purpose flour blendThis is the swap for the mornings the boxed gluten free corn muffin mix is not on the shelf.
• 2 teaspoonsbaking powder
• 1 teaspoonsugar
• 1/2 teaspoonsalt
• 1 cupbuttermilk
• 1egg
• 3 tablespoonsbutter, melted

1. Brown the beef in a heavy pot, breaking it up as it goes, then add the onion and cook until it softens, about five minutes.
2. Stir in the garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook for a minute, until the spices smell strong.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans and stock. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until it holds its shape on a spoon. Salt to taste.
4. Heat the oven to 400F and butter an 8 inch pan. Whisk the cornmeal, flour blend, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl.
5. Mix the buttermilk, egg and melted butter, pour that into the dry ingredients, and stir until no dry patches remain. The batter is looser than a wheat batter.
6. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the top springs back. Cool it in the pan for at least twenty minutes before cutting.
7. In the morning, preheat the thermos with boiling water while you reheat the chili to a full bubbling simmer, then tip the water out and fill to the top.

1. The cornbread never goes in the thermos. Steam turns it to sponge inside an hour. It travels wrapped, in its own container.
2. Reheat the chili until it is bubbling, not until it is warm. Warm chili out of a microwave is cold chili by noon.
3. Cut the cornbread into a slab they can hold in one hand. Gluten free crumb is loose, and small squares arrive as crumbs in the bottom of the bag.
4. Send a spoon. A fork loses most of a thick chili on the way up.

• The chili is watery in the thermos. It was not simmered down far enough before packing.
• The cornbread is damp underneath. It was wrapped while still warm and steamed itself in the container.
• The cornbread falls apart when they pick it up. There is no gluten holding it together and it was cut before it cooled in the pan.

Two things to read. The first is the chili seasoning, and this is the one that catches people: several of the big chili seasoning packets use wheat flour as a thickener and anti-caking agent, so buy plain chili powder and cumin separately, or a packet labeled gluten free. The second is the cornmeal, which has no gluten of its own but is often milled and bagged on lines that also handle wheat, so a bag marked gluten free is the safer buy. Then glance at the beef stock and at canned beans sold in sauce rather than water, since both can carry wheat or barley in the flavoring.