Eat: White bean chili

As the weather starts to turn a little cooler I can already see a change in my menu planning. Chili is back in rotation, and when I want to mix it up a little, I make this delicious white bean chili instead of the traditional red.

This white chicken chili recipe was adapted by my lovely sister Hilary, and ever since she served it to us my husband keeps asking for it. Even our family's resident picky eater approves of it (probably because there's nothing green in it).



source

So, without further ado, here is my favorite white chili recipe:

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey or chicken breasts
1 2/3 cup onion
3 garlic cloves
2 cans cannellini beans
1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp cumin (I use a little less)
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
dash cayenne

Serve with purple corn chips and cheese

If you are using ground turkey, brown the turkey and then add the onion and garlic and cook until tender (10 min) in a large saucepan. I normally use leftover roasted chicken, so I just cook the onion and garlic by themselves. Add beans (drained and rinsed), broth, spices, and meat if not already in the pot. Simmer approximately 20 minutes. Serve with grated cheese and purple corn chips. And just in case you are wondering, I like the purple corn chips because they show up so nice and pretty against the white chili. Much better than yellow corn chips. Yes, I'm one of those people...

As I already mentioned, I normally use leftover roasted chicken for this dinner. I hate having to cook chicken, and then cook dinner. It just seems like too many steps. Since I am so lazy resourceful I've come up with a plan to make less work for myself. When the whole chickens go on sale at the grocery store, I normally buy two. I roast them both at once, and we eat eat the better part of one chicken for dinner while the rest of the chicken gets shredded up and frozen in 2 cup portions. This way I can pull out my already cooked chicken for dishes like chili or chicken pot pie, and I have gotten all the greasy, boney, chickeny mess over with already. And no, I don't make my chicken carcasses into delicious homemade broth. Just in case you thought I was going all Martha Stewart on you what with the purple corn chips.

 

So there you have it. But wait - as you can tell from the above photo, I am not Christina - the fabulous food photographer. My photo is obviously not going to get onto foodgawker, because while I can cook good chili, I can't take good pictures of my chili. If you make this recipe and take a fabulous picture of it, why don't you send it to me and I'll put it on the blog instead of my sad photo, and then we'll try out for foodgawker. Don't forget the purple corn chips (maybe you can get them to actually look purple, instead of black)!

Until next time, MaryAnn