White Bean Chicken Chili
A wonderfully easy, zoomy fast to prep, and very flavorful recipe for the crockpot. This is thick and hearty comfort food for cold weather. From Darcy, via my mom. With a couple of modifications. Serves about 8.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. “great northern” dry beans (or 2 of the 16 oz cans of same variety— or navy)
If dry, soak them the night before.
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
1 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
One medium yellow onion, chopped
14 oz canned chopped green chiles
1 large can (28 oz) green enchilada sauce in your preferred heat
2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayanne pepper
6 cups chicken stock/ broth (or in my case, 6 cups water with enough “better than bullion” to flavor it because I never seem to have chicken broth on hand).
1 block of cream cheese
For serving, optional: grated Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, cilantro
Directions:
If using dry beans, soak them overnight the day before in water.
Pour your chicken stock & enchilada sauce into the crockpot and add the chicken, spices, chopped green chiles, and add the beans (which you either soaked overnight & then drained off the liquid, or simply dumped out of a can after draining & rinsing them). If you didn’t pre-cook the chicken & chop it up, you’ll work with that later. Turn it on to low.
Cook the chopped yellow onion in the olive oil in a frying pan on low-medium until it becomes slightly golden & softens & sweetens. Add the garlic & cook for another minute or two. Put the onion & garlic into the crockpot.
Cook on low for several hours (if you didn’t pre-cook the chicken, cook until the chicken is cooked all the way through -usually about 6 hours with our crockpot). Pull the cooked chicken breasts out & either shred them or cut them into cubes then transfer back to the pot to soak up the flavors & become more tender. A couple of hours or more.
When you are ready to serve, stir in the cream cheese until it blends into the chili. If it is too thick for your liking you can add more enchilada sauce or chicken stock.
Scoop into bowls & add sour cream, cilantro, and grated cheese on top as desired.