If you’re strapped for ideas for dinner (or you just don’t have time to cook dinner and you’ve been eating out a lot), one of the best things you can do is to break out your crockpot and start cooking with it. And to that end, one of the best things you can make in a crockpot is this white chicken chili recipe.
And don’t think that there are just one or two recipes you can use when it comes to doing chili in the crockpot. In fact, there are a number of recipes available, most of which can be adapted to crockpot use.
Using a crockpot is great, because you can just about toss everything together and leave it to cook on its own all day. It’ll just take a bit of preparation in the morning before you leave for work. For example, you may have to take a minute or two to sauté ground beef, chicken, turkey, etc., in the crockpot, then drain the grease off. Stir a minute or two longer with some garlic and spices added, and then add the other ingredients in a given chili recipe. Give it a quick stir once more, turn the crockpot on low, cover, and it will cook all day while you’re at work.
Some ideas for recipes
When it comes to white chicken chili recipe, you can pretty much use “everything but the kitchen sink,” as the saying goes, as long as you know the flavors are going to meld together well. Don’t think you have anything for supper tonight? Look in your freezer; if you’ve got some frozen ground beef (vegetarians can use textured vegetable protein or just leave the meat out, since the beans will make a fine protein source), some vegetables like frozen corn, onions, and green pepper, and canned tomatoes, canned beans like chili beans, kidney beans, or cannelloni beans, you’re pretty much set. Add a few spices and you’re good to go.
And for a more complete meal, you can cook the chili down a little bit more to make it extra thick, and then serve over rice, or in bowls with some crusty bread topped with garlic butter, and a salad. If you’ve got the “gang” coming over to watch football, you can make several different kinds of chili (in crockpots, of course), so everyone’s tastes are accommodated.
A great white chicken chili recipe that’s a little bit different but good (and without the traditional tomato base) is a white chicken, white bean chili.
For this recipe, use:
About 2 cups of diced or shredded chicken, cooked
A finely chopped white onion
Three cloves of minced garlic
A cup of chicken broth (or you can use bullion cubes)
A cup of frozen corn
Two cans of cannelloni white beans, drained
Add some spices:
Black pepper (about a quarter teaspoon)
Half a teaspoon of salt
A teaspoon of lemon juice
Half a teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin
Toss everything together and cook on low (just before you leave for work, if appropriate) and let it cook for seven to eight hours or so.
Again, no white chicken chili recipe is set in stone, so use what you have; substitute dried beans for canned, use other white beans like great Northern beans, and so on. If you do use dried beans instead of canned, make sure you cook them separately for an hour with enough water to cover, or leave them to soak overnight. And, if you like things a little spicy, you can also add jalapeno peppers, cayenne pepper, Tabasco sauce – the sky’s the limit, pretty much.
Be creative and have fun with what you do. For a more traditional bent on the chili recipe, use ground or cubed beef and two 15-ounce cans of diced tomatoes, chop a green bell pepper and half a red bell pepper, one onion and three cloves of garlic, and then add spices more in keeping with this type of chili, including black and red pepper flakes (about a quarter teaspoon each), half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon each of oregano and cumin, a half a cup of water, a cup of beef broth, and two cans of black or kidney beans, drained. As with the above chicken chili recipe, toss everything together and then turn it to low and cook for seven to eight hours.
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1096408_26.html
