White Bean Chicken Chili

This is a delicious and nutritious alternative to making a big pot of chili on a cold day. I've had these "white" or "green" chili's in the past- the major difference is that the warm spice of Cumin and Oregano stands alone without the heat of the red Chili powder- also there are no tomatoes. I used cubed white meat chicken which eliminates the majority of the fat associated with ground beef.

All healthy talk aside, the flavors are big and a bowl of this chili will warm you up and and fill you up just the same.

Ingredients
serves 8-10 people

2 medium yellow onions
2 fresh poblano peppers
5 large garlic cloves
1.5 tablespoon of dried Mexican Oregano
1.5 tablespoon of Cumin
2 bay leaves
1 large and 1 small can of chopped green chiles
3 chicken breasts bone-in, skin on**
6 cups chicken stock (see recipe below for homemade)
2 cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh Cilantro- chopped

**Shortcut: Use the white meat (and maybe a little bit of the dark meat) from 1 large rotisserie chicken from your grocery store.

If starting with split chicken breasts, I roast them on a rimmed baking sheet at 375 degrees for 35 or 40 minutes. I drizzle them with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper first. I let them cool completely before removing the skins and cutting the meat from the bones. This ensures that the meat holds onto all of the flavors. (They come in packages of two so I roasted all four breasts and then reserved one to make a chicken salad with later.) I then cubed the meat and refrigerated it until I was ready to make the soup.

**I then made a simple fresh Chicken Stock from the bones of the four breasts. (You could also do this with the rotisserie chicken once you've picked the meat.) See recipe below if you're interested, if not, store bought is just fine as well.

White Bean Chicken Chili:

While warming a large heavy bottomed soup pot drizzled with two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat, I gave the onions a rough chop with a knife and then pulsed it into a fairly fine dice in the food processor. I poured the onion into the pot and let the onion start to cook while I chopped the peppers.

Next, I removed the stem and the majority of the seeds from the poblanos- gave them a rough chop and then used the processor to break them down to a dice. I added the pepper to the onion and cooked the veggies together for another 4 minutes or so (total of 7 minutes ). The onion should be translucent but not too brown and the pepper softened. I seasoned the mixture with a generous teaspoon of kosher salt and some black pepper at this stage.

Next I grated the garlic cloves into the pot using a rasp, added the cumin and oregano- letting them toast for one minute before adding the chopped green chiles, the cubed chicken, the beans, the chicken stock and the bay leaf. I brought the soup to a boil and then reduced to medium-low heat to simmer for 30-40 minutes- giving the beans time to soak up lots of flavor. I stir in the fresh cilantro just before serving, using some extra for garnish.


Serve with tortilla chips, a dollup of sour cream, some grated pepper jack cheese or maybe a jalapeno cheddar corn bread. It freezes great as well if you want to stash some away for a lazy rainy day.

**Fresh Chicken Stock: Place the bones and all of the juices in the bottom of the baking sheet into a large pot. I then added a handful of baby carrots, one onion, cut into quarters, three cloves of garlics that I whack with a knife to release more flavor (you can leave the peel on), three sprigs of fresh thyme, and a bay leaf. (A stalk of celery would be great too if you have one, I didn't in this case.)


I filled the pot with water so that it was just covering the bones (about 8 cups) and placed it over medium-high heat. As soon as the mixture reached a boil, I lowered the heat to low and covered the pot, cooking for an hour or 90 minutes until the liquid is a toasty golden brown. Bonus: Your house smells like delicious chicken soup when its done. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a pitcher to remove all of the veggies to and refrigerate or freeze until you're ready to use.