This is my quick, weeknight recipe for white chicken chili. I make it when we need dinner in a hurry, and/or we've got some leftover chicken that I want to use up. It's a lot less finicky than the full fledged version, and takes advantage of store bought ingredients like canned beans and canned green chiles. It's also a lot less spicy, since my kids won't touch anything that might be a little hot.*
*Because of this, I now own a wide range
of hot
sauces
, so I can bump the heat up at the table.
Recipe: White Chicken Chili the easy way
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 lb ground turkey or chicken (or leftover chicken, shredded)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon oregano (preferably mexican oregano)
- 3 - 4oz cans diced green chiles
- 4 cans great northern beans, drained
- 1.5 cups homemade chicken stock or water or (ugh) a 15oz can low sodium chicken broth (just don't tell me)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- juice of 1 lime
- salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Saute the aromatics: In a 6 quart or larger dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the diced onions and a pinch of salt, and cook until softened and slightly browned.
Variations:
*Cook the chili in a crock pot: Follow the recipe through step 3; for step 4 ("cook the chili"), put everything in a crock pot, and set to low for 3-4 hours.
*Skip the ground turkey (and the 3-5 minutes of cooking), and substitute leftover cooked chicken, shredded, at the start of step 2. I use this variation often to use up leftovers after I've roasted a couple of chickens.
*Grill about 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut them into cubes, and substitute for the ground turkey as above. Before I discovered the joy of homemade beans, this is how I would cook the recipe.
*You can spice things up by adding a diced fresh Jalapeno, a teaspoon of chipotle puree, or some pickledJalapenos to the onions in the saute the aromatics step.*I usually cook this for my kids, though, so I skip the heat in the recipe, and add pickled jalapenos, some hot sauce
at the table.
*Good side dishes for this meal are barbecued frozen corn, corn bread, tortilla chips or Fritos, or oyster crackers. Good condiments are the hot sauces listed above, lime wedges, and sour cream. Oh, and shredded cheese - "mexican blend" is what my kids prefer, but cheddar or pepper jack work just as well.
Inspired by:
White chicken chili recipe from Viking
Really Hot Sauce: El Yucateco Extra Hot Habanero Sauce
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MikeV @ DadCooksDinner says
@Lori:
You're welcome! Thank you for the kind words.
Lori Kimmel says
What a wonderful chili! It works great for me when I need a quick dinner and yet it tastes like the chili took hours instead of minutes. Thanks again for a great recipe.