What better way to wrap up a week of Parfait!(ish) posts than with one that’s brand, spanking new?
This recipe arrived in my email from the nice folk at General Electric, who called it ‘Easy White Chili’. I had planned on tweaking it a bit more than I have, trying out a new recipe to replace canned ‘cream of…’ condensed soups, but time got away from me, and I went ahead and opened up one of those red and white cans. So, sue me – the chili was good, and pretty darned easy!
INGREDIENTS
•4 cloves garlic, minced (2 tbsp)
•1/2 sweet onion, diced (about 1 cup)
•Sliced green onions, divided
•1 tbsp olive oil
•1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles, drained
•1 (4 oz) can sliced black olives, drained*
•2 tsp oregano
•1 tsp cumin
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/4 tsp dried lemon grass**
•2 (15 oz) cans navy beans
•1 (10-3/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup
•1 (10-3/4 oz) can chicken broth
•1-1/2 cup water
•2 cups chicken, cooked and diced
•1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
•1/2 cup parsley***
•1 cup morel and leek jack cheese, shredded
(or just plain jack cheese)
Notes:
* I only had one can of green chiles and the original recipe called for two, so I subbed the can of sliced black olives. We like black olives, but thought the flavor, at first, a little overpowering. You may want to just do the two cans of chiles.
** I am not a huge fan of cumin, so cut back on the two teaspoons called for in the original recipe. To make up for the loss of any ‘smokiness’, I added the Aleppo pepper and a bit of dried lemon grass. Let’s face it, I add Aleppo to just about everything but 
dessert, so that’s a given; but the lemon grass was really very nice – and very subtle – in the chili. If you can’t find dried, feel free to mince fresh, just double the amount.
*** As with cumin, I am not a huge fan of cilantro, which is what the original recipe called for; so I used chopped fresh parsley.
Back to the chili.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, then add the onion and 
garlic. Sauté for five minutes, then stir in the white and light green bits (only) of the scallion (cooking the dark bits will adds a bitter flavor, save them to sprinkle over the finished bowl), the chiles (and olives, if you choose to), oregano, cumin, Aleppo pepper and lemongrass and cook for another minute or so.
Add the cream of chicken soup, chicken stock, water, chicken, and crushed red pepper, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Reduce the heat, add the parsley and shredded cheese and stir until the cheese has melted.
Your chili is now ready.
We had ours with additional parsley, those dark green bits of scallion, and some freshly baked cornbread on the side.
As I noted above, the black olives were a tad on the overpowering side right out of the pot. The corn bread (a new recipe) was also not quite as moist as I would have liked, even after I followed advice from other folk commenting on the original recipe and added whole buttermilk and butter to the batter.
The next day for lunch, however…
I’d cubed the corn bread, tossed it with a bit of melted butter and roasted it into very nice little corn croutons to add to the chili; and…
the other seasonings and flavors had blended together to subdue the black olives nicely, so you do what you like, this is a nice bowl of chili.
Oh, and the corn bread and croutons?
Check out those details, Monday!