After the recent thread on cast iron dutch ovens, I went out and purchased a 7-qt. beauty. The first thing I did was make a “no knead” bread. It turned out fantastic.
This weekend I’d like to make a white bean chicken chili. Anyone have a good recipe?
Well, I made some White Chili a couple months ago and someone asked me for the recipe. I told them that I made it up as I went along and that I didn’t use a recipe, but that I would email them approximatly what I did. The following is that email…
Let’s see…
I started by reducing a bunch of homemade chicken stock in half. Use low sodium stock from the store otherwise.
Meanwhile I cut up a bunch of chicken thighs (breasts would work, but dark meat really does have more flavor than white) and cooked them in a pot in smallish batches as to not crowd the pan with some olive oil.
When the chicken was done and set aside, I added a little more oil and added a bunch of mushrooms I sliced up.
When the mushrooms looked like they were getting close to tender, I added a whole bunch of course chopped onion and a couple pinches of salt to draw out the moisture.
After a couple minutes when the onions started looking like they were softening up, I added a whole head of garlic roughly chopped.
At this point, all the aromatics are done and you can add a few tablespoons of flour to the oil you have been cooking them in to create a roux.
You can add some of the cumin and oregano at this point if you wish, just don’t add too much now - you can always add later. Grind it in the blender or mortar/pestle first. Chilies can be added now too. I used 2 serrano’s and 5 habaneros without the seeds. Again, go light on them, you can add some more later, but adding them in this step will kind of fry the spices and chilies a little and release some of their volatile oils. Don’t cook it too long.
When the roux is made and spice have been stirred around for a minute, add the chicken stock that you were reducing on another burner. Add the chicken back in. Add two 4oz. cans of green chilies which are found in the mexican aisle of the supermarket. Add two 14.5oz (or whatever) cans of canellini or great northern beans. Add some salt and pepper, more ground cumin and oregano, and more chilies as you taste it for flavor. (You will be surprised how much cumin you need to make it taste like “chili”).
I added a splash of milk at some point simply because I thought it was to dark in color to be a “white chili”. But this is totally not necessary.
Sprinkle in the secret ingredient that I can’t tell you about. 
Refrigerate overnight and reheat.
… I told you I just winged it without a proper recipe.