This was an inspired one, I think.

Inspired, I should say, by our man Catsmeat, who recommended something he made called a “doughboy” months ago, and by various recent discussions of savory pastries. But also inspired in the same way we say great performances are inspired, as if granted to the actors by some transcendent force that for some reason focuses its divine efforts on pleasing indie-film audiences and art critics.

Anyway, if I was the medium for inspiration in this case, the source was certainly a fridge full of leftovers combined with my wife’s insistence that I put some of them to use before they went bad. And they never went bad. They went well. So, so well.

Presenting: The Chili Doughboy:

Here’s how it went down:

1) Make chili. Serve with cheddar and monterey jack shredded cheese blend, sour cream, and tortilla chips. Enjoy chili with your wife’s family. Receive lots of compliments on chili, because the chili is delicious. Save remaining chili in tupperware in fridge. Also save remaining cheese, sour cream and chips.

2) Plan to make pizza. Buy small ball of pizza dough from local pizzeria. Scrap plans to make pizza. Something else came up.

3) A couple of days later, remove pizza dough from fridge and bring to room temperature. Using kitchen shears, cut pizza dough into quarters. Pre-heat oven to 400-degrees.

4) Stretch out one of the pieces of dough until it is roughly eight inches in diameter and lay it flat. You don’t want the dough to be NY-pizza-style thin.

5) Grab some of that shredded cheese — remember the cheese? — and spread it in the center of the dough, creating a little cheese-bed. I didn’t try it any other way, but I suspect this is important: You’re going to (SPOILER ALERT) put chili on top of the cheese, and I worry that if you put the chili right on top of the dough, the grease from the chili might seep through and jeopardize the structural integrity of the entire thing. The cheese is there to protect against that. It is also delicious cheese.

6) Put chili on top of the cheese. I used about two scoops, using a tablespoon. But not two measured tablespoons — I was just using a regular old tablespoon, like from my silverware drawer, and they were big heaping spoonfuls. Eyeball it. Use whatever you think looks like the right amount of chili for that amount of dough. This isn’t rocket science.

7) OPTIONAL: Crumble a couple of tortilla chips on top of the chili. I say “optional” here because I did it, but in truth it’s completely unnecessary. I was hoping I’d capture some of the magic of Taco Bell’s Crunchy Red Strips, but… well, more on that to follow.

8) Wrap that mother up. Brush with a little bit of olive oil, and dust with salt and chili powder. Repeat if you want more than one.

9) Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. You know what cooked things look like. Let cool — these things are hot. You might want to poke a hole in the top with the fork to let some of the steam escape.

10) Eat the Chili Doughboy. I mixed sour cream with sriracha to use as a dip, but it turned out the sriracha part was probably unnecessary. The chili itself was spicy enough that I really didn’t need any more heat. Just the sour cream would have been fine.

Turns out the Chili Doughboy is amazing. And despite all those steps, really easy to make — provided you already have leftover chili. It’s the bread-bowl approach to chili, without even the need for finding a worthy bread bowl (which is always way harder than it feels like it should be). Plus the pizza dough is fresh baked and piping hot, and just a touch sweet, which makes for a nice complement to a spicy chili.

The crumbled tortilla chips did nothing for this. They got lost in the mix with all the other flavors and textures, and I suspect they got sogged down by the chili in the cooking process and didn’t have the crunchifying effect I was hoping for. No matter. What I failed to consider was that the top part of the dough had a nice crust to it, which provided all the crunch this thing needed.

When I next make these — and I’m going to make them again, probably within the next few days because I still have some chili and some dough — I’m going to try making them a bit smaller, closer to appetizer-sized. I think I’m on to something here, you guys.