Sunday, October 31, 2010

White Chili

Another Hallow-tini dish

This dish is inspired by Cooks Illustrated magazine and incorporates some prettyy clever ideas. It uses both cooked chilis and raw ones as well. It uses variety of chilis to get extra complexity.

Ingredients
4 lbs bone in skin on schicken breasts, patted dry and with salt pepper sprinkled on.
1T vegetable oil
2 medium Spanish (yellow) onions
5 medium Jalapeno chillies divided use
3 Poblano chillies divided use
4 Anaheim chillies
6 cloves garlic crushed
1 1/2 t ground cumin (best freshly ground)
2T ground coriander (best freshly ground)
4 cans cannelini beans (15 oz cans) rinsed
3 cups vegetable stock (I had vegetable stock left over!, chicken is fine)
Bunch minced cilantro leaves (including most of green part)
3 scallions
3T cider vinegar for balance
Salt/Pepper to taste

Method

In a Dutch Oven heat the oil and put in the chicken breasts skin side down. Leave for several (4-6) minutes without moving them and allow to brown. While cooking the chicken, chop the vegetable ingredients (1/2 the jalapenos, 1/2 the poblanos) in a couple of batches in the food processor. About 5 -7 short pulses. You are looking for chunky salsa not paste.
Turn the chicken over and cook on the bone side for a couple of minutes. The chicken is, of course, not cooked at this point. We have created fond in the pan.
Remove the chicken from the pan remove all but 1T of the fat. Add the chopped up vegetables, coriander and cumin. Cook for 10 minutes covered, on low heat until the onions are translucent and the peppers soft. You do not want any colour. 
remove 1 cup or so of the cooked vegetable, 1 cup cannellini beans and 1 cup stock to the food processor bowl, and process until smooth. Return the smooth vegetable/bean misture to the dutch oven, add the rest of the stock. remove the skin from the chicken and discard. Place the chicken bone side up in the dutch oven, add the rest of the beans. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the chicken temperature is around 160-165F. remove chicken and allow to cool slightly
Add the remainer of the beans and warm through allowing the beans to thicken the liquid.
Cut the chicken off the bone - into bite sized pieces. Add back into the pot.
At this point the dish can be refriegerated.

Finishing
Gently reheat the dish. While it is reheating, mince the remaining Jalapaneos and Poblanos withthe cilantro and scallions (inclusing some green parts). Add 3 T cider vinegar (or so, to balance), and adjust seasoning adding salt/pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls....

1 comment:

Judy said...

Chris - Rocco loved your white chilli and I just copied the recipe for our use. It is getting to be that time of year when it will be wonderful to have this delicious recipe on hand.