The White Chicken Chili

{This post is prior to my gluten-free days. Please use caution when following this recipe if you must eat gluten-free. Always check individual ingredients to ensure they're gluten-free before consuming.}

This white chicken chili is so so good. I mean, I look forward to fall all year long just to eat this white chicken chili.  Which is why I call it "The White Chicken Chili" because in my book, there's no other that compares. Chicken. Navy beans. Garlic. Onions. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Mom found it a few years ago in a Southern Living cookbook. It's technical name is White Lightning Chicken Chili. She found it soon after we found out about my food allergies. After having an allergy test, where you lay on a cold table in a doctor's office and get stuck with all these little pokey things on your back, we found out that I was allergic to tomatoes.

This was a HUGE deal for me.

I ate tomatoes everyday. Salsa on everything. Mexican everything. The deliciousness of tomatoes on everything. I remember starting to cry when I started connecting the dots about what I couldn't eat anymore.

I was devastated. I mean, I have other food allergies, but tomatoes are the most threatening to my life and my taste buds.

So, we grabbed the allergy by the horns, and started researching foods that we could eat as a family and enjoy, without threatening my life. White Chicken Chili was the most memorable. It's just so delicious.

Well, here we are 2 (Or maybe 3) years later, still making this chili. And it's still just as delicious. Since it is October, I decided that it was a "cold" enough month to make some good, heart-warming chili.

A few things that I would recommend:
1) Buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It will taste better and take less time. Or my mom cooked the chicken in the crockpot while she was gone to church and then made it when she got home. That's also a good alternative.
2) Make it on the weekend. Separate it out in smaller containers. Eat it the rest of the week. You're welcome.

Ok so when I made the chili, I started by getting my chicken boiling in a pan.

While that was cooking, I diced up the onion....

This was my mound of onion when it was all chopped up

[I had a half of an onion in the fridge already, so technically I used a whole onion. Ignore that half of an onion to the left. It was leftover. It became part of fajitas later that week.]

Then I opened all my cans...

Then I still had time to kill while the chicken cooked, so I checked Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, played some Phase 10 on my iPad..... 

Finally the chicken was done. 

So I shredded the chicken, got rid of the yucky parts. Then I FINALLY started cooking the soup. [Which is why I said to just buy a rotisserie chicken, or cook it in the crock pot. Boiling takes too long. I'm not a patient person.]

I put the oil in the pan. Let it get hot. Add onion and garlic. Cook til the onion is tender. 

Then add chicken, chicken broth, green chiles, and white chicken chili mix. 

This is what the packet looks like. It's sometimes hard to find, because everybody buys it during this time of year. Because it's delicious. True story. 

So then you add 2 cans of beans, as is. Just dump them in. But the third can, you smash up before you add it. This helps thicken up the soup a little bit. 

Then you boil, simmer, and what not, just like the recipe says. It's fairly easy. Then you end up with this!

MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

And we like to serve it with a dollop of sour cream and some corn chips. (Cheese taste weird on it. Don't do it.)

And ta-da! That's it!

We seriously eat on this all week. It's easy to reheat. And honestly, it taste better the second time you eat it. 

Check out the printable version of the recipe HERE

Try it. Let me know what you think! 

Much Love, 

KG,RD

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