I saw Tabasco in the title of the recipe and I couldn’t help but check it out.  Yes, this recipe from Foodie Crush was sponsored by Tabasco for a challenge.  That doesn’t  make it bad.  Tabasco sauce is a hot sauce I love because it adds just the right amount of heat and flavor.  I personally don’t like stuff so spicy that I can’t taste anything else.  But, I’m no wimp.  I eat stuff that makes my nose run a lot.  I won’t be munching on ghost peppers any time soon, but hand me a jalapeno!  Anyway, I saw this recipe and I was intrigued.  When I took a look at the recipe, the ingredients were simple.  Nothing fancy.  The stats weren’t too bad either.

• 354 Calories
• 10 g Fat
• 75 mg Cholesterol
• 799 mg Sodium
• 37 mg Carbohydrate
• 29 mg Protein
• 106% Vitamin A
• 103% Vitamin C
• 9% Calcium
• 13% Iron

The good thing, is there isn’t much to change.  The original recipe has tomatoes and wheat flour which will need to be removed.  The sodium is a bit high too.  I also want to lower the calorie count so that I can add some rice along with this.

Here is what I changed:

• Deleted the flour.
• Replaced the canned tomatoes with 2 red bell peppers and 1 can of pumpkin puree
• Replace the canned garbanzo beans with a low sodium variety
• Added one carrot.
• Deleted any added salt
• Increased the servings from 6 to 8

Here is the updated recipe:

Tabasco Braised Chicken, Chickpeas and Kale

Serves 8

• 1 ½ pounds skinless chicken thighs
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 white onion, diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree
• 2 15 ounce cans low sodium garbanzo beans
• 2 cups kale
• 1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
• 3/4 cup water

1. Season the chicken thighs with black pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat in a large dutch oven or 8 quart stockpot. Cook one half of the chicken for 5-7 minutes per side or until nicely browned. Remove from pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and cook the other half of the chicken, remove from pan and add to the reserved chicken.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, bell pepper and carrot to the pot. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until onion becomes tender. Add pumpkin puree, garbanzo beans with juice, kale, Tabasco and water and stir making sure to scrape the bits off the bottom of the pot. Nestle the chicken thighs with their juices in the sauce mixture, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer, and cook for 25-30 minutes or until flavors have melded. Serve over rice, quinoa or egg noodles.