Smoked White Chili

The folks at work, Rockwell Collins Printed Circuits (CPC), showed their generosity once again through cooking and serving food this week. One of our fellow employees has a daughter with type 1 diabetes, and she is riding 100 miles to raise money for research to cure this often deadly disease. The folks at CPC decided to raise money by having a chili and hot dog lunch. Volunteers signed up to provide the fixin’s , and quite a few folks said they’d make chili. Dr. Dave said “Hey, count me in!”.

OK. I am a big chili fan, and fixing chili is as rewarding as eating chili. A really good chili takes as long as smoking a pork butt, and it is very complex in flavor. Many recipes have layer, upon layer of spices incorporated into the final chili. A good chili doesn’t just BRING THE HEAT! It brings a wide array of spices well blended to tantalize!

I surveyed the chili cooks and found that the variety of chili recipes was covering most of the bases. We had several Cincinnati recipes ranging from medium heat to much hotter. We had two Texas chili recipes (NO BEANS!) ranging from hot, to hotter. So, Dr. Dave decided to concoct a white chili recipe.

For those who don’t know, white chili is made with chicken and uses “white” ingredients. No red chili powder, very little cayenne pepper, no tomatoes, no beef (no Beef! OMG!). That still leaves the door wide open on the amount of heat which can be brought on. Dr. Dave decided to push for a medium hot chili made with fresh peppers and a few spices. The market had a pretty good variety of fresh hot peppers, so I decided on Anaheim, Pasilla, Serrano and Jalapeno peppers. Most recipes for white chili call for chicken breasts, but I wanted more flavor from the chicken and chose chicken thighs instead. I also decided to add some flavor by smoking the peppers and the chicken thighs.

Ingredients:

8 Chicken thighs, skin removed
2 Anaheim peppers
2 Serrano peppers
2 Jalapeno peppers
2 Pasilla peppers
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 White onion
1 Tbs Cumin
1 Tbs White pepper
1 Tbs Kosher salt
2 tsp ground cloves
48 oz Canned Northern White Beans
1 qt Chicken stock
1 qt Vegetable stock
2 pt Heavy whipping cream
BBQ rub of choice

Directions:

- Slice all of the peppers in half. Remove seeds to keep things from getting too hot.
- Place the peppers in a vegetable grilling basket and smoke for 1 hour at 225°F.
NOTE: An alternative is to roast the peppers in a 225° oven for an hour

Peppers prepared for the smoker

- In the meantime, soak the chicken thighs in a salt brine solution for an hour
- Remove the chicken from the brine solution, rinse and pat dry.
- Lightly sprinkle with the BBQ rub.
- Smoke the chicken thighs for 2 hours at 225°F or roast in a 225° oven for 2 hours
- In a stock pot, combine the chicken stock, half the vegetable stock, 1 pint of heavy whipping cream, the cumin, white pepper, salt, garlic and cloves.
- Rinse the beans and add to the stock pot.
- Bring the mixture to a low boil and then turn to low.
- Finely chop the peppers and onion, then add to the stock solution.
- Cut the chicken meat into ½” cubes and add to the stock pot.
- Simmer covered for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally. The liquid will absorb into the chicken and peppers as well as evaporate.
- After simmering, add the remaining vegetable stock and the other pint heavy whipping cream.
- Pour into a crock pot and keep warm until serving.

When ready to serve, sprinkle on some cayenne pepper(adds flavor and helps with the presentation).

Serve with:

Slice black olives
Salsa
Sour cream
Pickle jalapenos
Avocados

I am proud of the CPC folks. We raised $519 for this worthy cause.