I’m not sure why, but I’m noticing that I haven’t been cooking as much lately.  It’s not that I haven’t been feeding my family, because I have.  Our meals have been very rushed and crazy lately.  I’ve been throwing French Dips together or making a Panini out of the leftover lunch meat.  I haven’t actually been cooking over the stove or chopping vegetables for a new dish I’m trying out.  It could have something to do with the fact that my entire pantry collapsed and the contents are now sitting on my dining room table.  But, I’m chalking it up to just being really busy right now.

Last night I decided that I needed to make something really yummy.  My mom had made a bunch of chicken in the crock pot for me, while she was staying with my kids this weekend.  I used the chicken for tacos and had a lot of left over, so I decided that I’d make the white chicken chili that my family loves so much.  I wrote a blog post last year about the SUPER fast way to make this dish, so I thought I should repost the recipe.

Here’s what I did:

I started by cooking a pound of chicken breast in the crockpot.

In a pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.
Add 1/2 small diced onion, cook for 3 minutes
Add 1 clove of minced garlic, cook for 1 more minute
Add 1/2 cup flour and mix
Slowly add 1 cup of half and half and 1 cup of milk
Add 8 oz of light cream cheese
Add 1 1/2 cups of Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
This mixture makes kind of a mac and cheese type sauce.
Slowly pour in 3-6 cups of chicken stock (depending on how thick you like your chili)
Add 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed
(or chop your own)
2 cups of frozen corn
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 tsp chili powder or a little bit of taco seasoning
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper

It made a thick, yummy, cheesy, chicken chili that everyone loved.

My hubby says this recipe needs to go in our regular rotation. The kids both loved it too!  My son had a second bowl after we got home from the Young Life corn maze at 9:45pm.  This morning I found him heating another bowl and putting it into a thermos to take for lunch.  I guess that kid really loves this chili!!

By the way, those little tortilla strips on top were just cut and tossed with olive oil and a bit of taco seasoning.  Then I baked them for about 5 minutes to crisp them up.  They were a perfect little topping for the chili.

Happy cooking!