Before There Was White Pizza There was White Chili.

By popular request (Jason), here is my recipe for White Chili. I made it LAST week, and at an ill-fated moment, closed the program I was writing in accidentally, and it didn’t have a “don’t you want to save the current document” fail-safe. Shucks. So I cussed the app and went to bed. First of all, I don’t have this “White Food Fetish.” It’s a pure coincidence and the MOST basic variation on a theme towards 2 of my popular scoops. What follows is the recipe for:
Eric’s White Chilli!Ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 stick butter
1 large onion (white or yellow, DICED)
1 entire bulb of garlic (peeled and smashed)
2 16 oz. cans of chicken broth
1 lb. dry navy beans
1 lb. dry great northern beans
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 16 oz. can of evaporated milk (or nearly 32 oz. regular milk, your choice)
1 lb. shredded monterey jack cheese
1/2 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 C. chopped cilantro
1 T. oregano
2 T. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T. paprika
1 T. black pepper
2 T. lime juice
salt to taste
Accompaniment:
sour cream or ranch dressing
chopped cilantro, parsley, green onions, jalapeño slices
warm tortilla strips
full-blown quesadillas
Okay…this is not only a set of “assembly instructions” but plenty of chop-chop efficiency tips around the kitchen. Tip one: Throw all the above junk on the counter and get ready to fly. But first, let’s talk beans…If you don’t have time to soak or cook DRY beans, replace with DOUBLE the amount of canned beans.Don’t know about you, but my chicky breasts are always frozen solid. Well, for this dish, toss ’em in the Nuke and crank it up to 4-6 minutes…the goal is to go from frozen to mostly cooked whilst thou assemblest the other blessed ingredients.Grab the biggest dutch oven, soup kettle, or cauldron you can find in your kitchen. Cover the bottom with olive oil, drop in the butter, and turn up the heat to med/hi and start to soften your onions and garlic. Deglaze the pot with the chicken broth. Then add the beans and blend the mixture well.By this time, hopefully, the chicken breasts are cooked through enough for you to be able to easily to dice or shred the chicken. Also, dump the rendered liquid from your microwave dish into the pot. After dicing the chicken, add to mix. Bring the soup to a simmer.Now, add the evaporated milk, the cheeses, and the rest of the herbs, spices, and lime juice. Taste and adjust with salt, more milk, broth, or water to your taste.Serve with the garnishes above nice and hot and get ready for seconds!