White Chicken Chili

Dec 12 2013

Friday I bought a whole chicken to smoke for some soup. I wanted to try some white chicken chili. I have fixed several different recipes but none impressed me. Some recipes don’t even have chili powder in them; I don’t see how you can say it’s chili without chili powder!

I found a recipe at foodnetwork.com by the Neely’s that sounded good. It had chilies, and chili powder in it, and the adding of the juice of two limes sounded good.

I spatchcocked the chicken and did it on my smoker Friday. I do them this way anytime I want chicken to add to soup. I usually add a pat of butter up under the breast skin to help keep the meat moist. Since the recipe had lime juice in it I added a slice of lime this time. I did the chicken at 300 deg. until an IT of 170 deg. breast temp. I made a snack of the skin nuked until crispy for myself and pulled all the meat off the bones for my soup on Saturday. Friday I cooked inside and had pork cutlets fried then in the oven to keep while I fried cabbage in the same skillet and fried some potatoes. Pork, fried cabbage and fried potatoes make a fine meal.

Friday night I mixed up a batch of my Smoked Korean crackers to smoke Sat. and have with the soup.

Early Saturday I made some cornbread, in a cast iron skillet in the oven. I have done cornbread on the smoker but you don’t really get any smoke flavor. After lunch I smoked the crackers 175 deg. for an hour and a half. I charred the two Anaheim peppers on my gas grill to peel the skin and add to the soup.

I made a few changes in the ingredients and changed the cooking process. I cut back on the cumin to a teaspoon, a heaping teaspoon of Ancho chili pepper, and I added a teaspoon of smoked paprika. I omitted the jalapeno and added some chopped green bell pepper instead. I cut back on the cilantro too since we are not crazy about it.

I sautéed the onions, peppers and garlic in some olive oil until all were soft. I diced up the chicken so it was all kind of uniform size, added that to the skillet and heated through. I then added the spices and seasoning and stirred to coat the chicken and heat through. All this went into my Aroma cooker to slow cook. I added the chicken broth, cannellini beans, and the lime juice. This was about 3:00 so would be done by 6:00 for our supper. At 5:00 I added the cilantro and it looked like too much broth and not enough beans for me. I found a can of navy beans so I rinsed them and added; now it looked better!

My wife and I had the chili, topped with crushed taco chips and sour cream on top. She had some cornbread with hers and I had cornbread and smoked crackers with mine. We both liked it, she doesn’t usually like soup with beans except for regular chili; but she liked this. My daughter in law and grandson had some Sunday evening and both liked it. For me it was the best white chicken chili I have had!

Link to Neely's Recipe

Soup Ingredients

Chicken ready for the smoker, you can see the lime slices under the breast

On the smoker

Resting and ready to pull the meat

Cornbread

Smoked Korean crackers

Anaheim peppers ready to peel and dice

Diced up

Onions, peppers, and garlic sauteing

Chicken, spices and seasoning added

My Bowl, my supper