White Chicken Green Chili Chili

How we make it.

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled and shredded
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
2—4 ounce cans diced green chilies
3—15 ounce cans white cannellini beans
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup sour cream
Garnish: sour cream, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, green onions

Pull the meat off an entire rotisserie chicken, removing bones and skin. Chop into bite sized pieces and set aside. Drain and rinse three cans of beans in a colander. Remove about one can's worth and place in a small bowl, smash with a fork until a paste and set aside. Heat a large heavy bottom pot to medium and add olive oil, onions, garlic, chilis, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until softened then add cumin, cumin seed and chili powder, cooking for another 2 minutes. Add the drained beans, the chicken and chicken stock. Stir to combine and raise heat to high, bringing to a boil. Add beans you mashed up, stirring through until incorporated to make stock creamy. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium low and partially cover. Stir in sour cream and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot and garnish with more sour cream, cheese and green onions.

Why we make it.

I never liked chili until I had my mother-in-law's white chili a million years ago. She's the lass who taught me to use a rotisserie chicken as a starting point. She is a soup master. Canned goods spill from her cupboard. She slices and dices and throws sauces and spices into her soup pots all fall. The result is always amazing, and never the same as the last time she did it. I used to judge her for all those canned goods in the purism of my youth, but years of eating her soups got me off my high horse. This isn't one of these gloopy chilis, it's thinner and brothier, made just a little creamy by mashing a third of the cannellini beans and stirring them through. It's delicately spiced with cumin seed, chili powder and wonderful diced green chilis. Straight from their cans. My chili is not as good as my mother-in-law's and it never will be, but she taught me to make it, and that's why I do. I think you'll love it, too.