White Chicken Chili

On our way to Florida we stopped and had a late lunch with friends in the Atlanta area - Jenn served this VERY delicious white chicken chili, and yesterday she sent me the recipe. Today I was having friends over so I thought it would be the perfect lunch to share with them.

The recipe calls for a great deal of monterey jack cheese, 4 cups alone going into the chili. I asked Jenn how much she thought I could reduce of that and not sacrifice flavor and she thought about half. At the same time I did a search on Cooking Light's website to see if they had something similar and what they did about the cheese 'issue'. I found a white bean and turkey chili recipe with a 5 star review and it did not use any cheese at all, but otherwise very similar to Jenn's recipe. So, I ended up basically combining the two recipes and put mine in the crockpot a couple hours before lunch, on high. Everyone loved it, and so here's 'my' lighter version. (It of course could be done in a pot on the stove, but I wrote this recipe as I made it today in my slow cooker.)

White Chicken Chili
serves 6-8


Ingredients:

• 1 medium-large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cans Great Northern beans
• 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 8 oz can of green chiles
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 TB olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium heat, add onions and cook until translucent/lightly golden. (about 10 minutes).
2. Turn slow cooker on high.
3. Combine chicken broth, shredded chicken, beans, onions, chiles, garlic, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, oregano in slow cooker. Cook on high for at least 1 hour, then turn down to low until ready to eat.

Serve with the following optional toppings:

• shredded monterey jack cheese
• finely chopped jalepeno peppers
• finely sliced green onions
• sour cream
• 1/2 cup diced roma or compari tomatoes
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• lime wedges