White Chili Soup
3 16oz cans northern white beans
4 c cooked chicken
1 Tb olive oil
2 medium chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic
2 4oz cans chopped green chilies
2 Tb ground cumin
6 c chicken broth
3 c grated jack cheese
That's how my good friend Jeanie, who's moved away, gave it to me. Now I'll tell you what I do:
I do usually use the canned beans, but might at times cook the beans from scratch, which would probably be about 2 cups of dry beans. I prefer the smaller white beans. I usually cook up a whole chicken, both for the meat and the broth. Otherwise I use organic chicken broth. I usually have cooked chicken and turkey in the freezer from past meals, but in a bind, I've used canned chicken. I can't tell you the sizes, but I think I used three cans.
Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil. I always add more garlic than recipes call for. Then add the chopped green chilies. We always have frozen roasted anaheim chilies in our freezer from the farmer's market. I get a bushel and usually 3 chilies equals 4 ounces. I don't remove the blackened skin when freezing, but remove it when thawed and I'm readying to chop them (and don't like washing it off, as I think I'm washing away good flavor, but just run my fingers down the chili to remove the skin, stem end, and seeds, then I do have to wash my hands to remove it all from them!). And the cumin, I grind fresh. I rarely buy pre-ground spices, preferring their fresh ground flavor. My cute little wood mortar & pestle sit on my kitchen windowsill.
If I'm taking the soup somewhere, then I put the cheese in it too. At home, we grate cheese and put some in our soup bowls and ladle in the soup. From another chicken soup recipe, I fell in love with fresh avacado cut in chunks and added to the soup bowls. When we have guests (some guests having had it more than once - and they love it!) we typically set up meals buffet style on our island in the middle of the kitchen that the stove is a part of. So the soup pot stays on the stove and there'll be a wooden bowl with wooden tongs of grated cheese and a bowl of cut up avacados (with fresh squeezed lime juice to keep them from browning). Homemade bread and salad top off the meal.
4 comments:
I've made that recipe too. I have to use vegetable stock for the picky husband that doesn't like chicken. the recipe we had used real whipped cream and sour cream. I don't put in the whipped cream but the sour cream tastes wonderful. It's a great dish for cold weather, lots of flavor.
I'll add a comment as to Heather - she's just now going to emergency. Her fever returned. We're hoping it's not pneumonia.
Have you ever made soup with the store bought roasted chickens? I started using them about a year ago - being really old, I'd rather have the easy way so I'm not on my feet. I use to do everything from scratch like you. Costco has good roasted chicken around 5 to 6 dollars. I pull the meat off and use any broth from the container, and use their organic chicken broth. I've never made white chili but I'll try your recipe and I would use the canned beans too - its quicker. Oh, what's great about the roasted chickens too, they are great for chicken salad! Thanks for sharing! By the way, how are you at motivating old ladies?
OLD Ladies? What/when is old? 'Motivating' is the thing here - motivating any age is not easy. Is it the "teaching an old dog new tricks?" thing? or just laziness? Hmmm ... What's the need?
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