Sweet Potatoes & Chilis for Thanksgiving

Peeled and sliced in very narrow wedges, the sweet potatoes are layered with vegetables and a large amount of roasted green chilis cooked in a broth and topped with thin layer of cheddar cheese.

The red yams I used were difficult to peel but any red peel that was left on the yam was not an issue in the cooking process, and so depending on your variety, you could skip this step. I suggest however, thoroughly clean the skin with a scrub brush before cutting.

Cut four yams into thin wedges. If they are very long cut them into pieces no more than 4 inches long. Layer these lightly in a oven-proof pan.

My green chilis are frozen in snack bags (peeled and seeded and about 4 large chillis per bag). When slightly thawed and removed from the bag they are a very cold 1 inch round tube. Cut this chili log lengthwise at about 1-inch intervals, while still slightly frozen. Layer the contents of one snack bag on to the first layer of wedges.

Then, add a mixture of something crunchy like maybe pepitas (but not a nut that will get soggy) and some combo of onions, garlic, maybe bell peppers. It’s the soft crunch that’s needed, so feel free to use whatever you have around because the green chili and yams will dominate the finished product.  Add spices to this crunch mixture: some ground cumin (less than a teaspoon), black pepper (1 t), cardamon seed (1 t) and plenty of salt (1 T).

On to this layer, add another loose layer of sweet potato wedges then another bag of green chilis chopped, and another thin layer of the crunch mixture. Finish with a top layer of yam wedges. In this version we added chilis on top, but having them in between the sweet potato layers is better.

If all you have is a green chili stew you could add this as both the chili and crunch layer but the result will be a little more muddled. This will serve as the cooking liquid as well. Here we added two cups of homemade vegetable broth that was not salted. Cut down on the salt if you use some liquid that is salted.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. The dish doesn’t look much different from when it went into the oven, so test for doneness by eating one wedge. Bake longer if the yams aren’t the softness you like. After 30 minutes, my yams were done, but there was too much liquid in the pan. (Different varieties soak up various amounts of liquid). I used a baster to siphon out about 1/4 cup of broth, leaving less than 1/2 inch covering the bottom of the pan to keep the dish moist when I re-heat it.

Finally, top the casserole with 1 cup grated cheddar cheese, and bake for another 10 minutes. The sweet potato chili casserole can be served hot, immediately, or refrigerated and warmed up at the Thanksgiving party.