White chicken chili

This recipe for chicken chili started out with inspiration here. She calls it Three Sisters Chili because she uses corn, squash, and beans. Because of my substitutions, it was just chicken chili this time.

Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
1-2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 lb. dried white beans (Great Northern or Navy beans)
6 c. chicken broth (plus more as needed.)
1 bay leaf
1 t. salt
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T unsalted butter
1 lg. onion, chopped
6 lg. cloves garlic, minced
1 poblano chile, stemmed, seeded and chopped into medium dice
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded, minced
1 T chile powder
1 ½ t. cumin
1 t. oregano
1 T olive oil
2 T all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 c. shredded Mexican 4 Cheese Blend
½ eggplant, peeled and cut into ½ in. dice
⅓ c. chopped cilantro plus additional for garnish

To make this, soak the beans overnight, or (more like me), when you remember to think about supper, do the quickie 2 hour soak (after bringing the water to a boil). Drain the beans. Season the broth with salt and bay. Then, cook the beans in the chicken broth, about 1-2 hours. Once they are done, saute the onions and peppers in the olive oil and butter until tender. Add the flour to make a roux. Add the milk, whisking all the time, until it is smooth and thick. Add in the cheese to make a cheese sauce. Add this cheese sauce, the cooked chicken, the eggplant, and the cilantro to the pot of beans. Cook until the eggplant is tender, and the chili is heated through, about 30 minutes. Garnish with additional cilantro.

This chili would be good with Ro-tel added, as well as good garnished with sour cream. It would also be a good place to use many, many different vegetables, whatever you have in your house. I could imagine squash, zuchinni, corn, tomatoes, even chard in this. Those things just didn't happen in my house that night. I'm sure that there was a good reason, but honestly? You probably don't want to hear about "my knee turned red" (aka a skinned knee) in a post about supper. I'll save that for another time.

Check out the great blog The Grocery Cart Challenge today. She's got a round-up of budget stretching recipes from all over. If you've never checked out Gayle's blog, now is the time. She feeds 6 folks on $60/week. Quite the inspiration!