White Chili

One could ask why a "white" chili never occured to one before. Alas I'm afraid the answer is simply - "convention". Chili has simply never been "white". It's been beefy, beef-less, beany, bean-less, groundbeefed, cubed beefed, with or without chocolate, but always always with that dark tomato-ey base to set off the other ingredients.

Recently, perusing teh interwebs, I landed on this recipe, which opened my eyes to the possibility of something different, something unchartered (in my kitchen at least!) in the ways of chili. It had to be tried. And it was good! Really really good, in fact!

I did wing it a bit - for example I didn't use chicken broth, and I only had one can of green chillies, which didn't turn out to be a problem. Try this soon, you'll really enjoy it. Next time, I'll be using quorn instead, to make this vegetarian.

• 500 g. boneless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 cups white beans, soaked overnight
• veggie broth - however much you need to cover everything up. 
• 1 can chopped green chilies
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup cream

• In a large saucepan, saute the chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add the beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. I used a pressure cooker, because I hadn't had time to pre-soak the beans. It took a little longer, but I think it lifted the overall dish. The chicken seemed extra tender because of it. Or maybe I'm imagining things!
• Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream. Serve with rice for an extra hearty meal.