the food out here

I’m dreaming of a white… Chili!

By HUNTER HILL
Posted 12/23/24

I’ve mentioned my wife’s famous white chili before in my columns as early as my fifth one back in June 2019 titled ‘Not so talkative turkeys.’ To my own personal amazement I …

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the food out here

I’m dreaming of a white… Chili!

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I’ve mentioned my wife’s famous white chili before in my columns as early as my fifth one back in June 2019 titled ‘Not so talkative turkeys.’ To my own personal amazement I have yet to divulge the wonder that is the dish itself. I think of it each spring when turkey season rolls around because that’s normally when I harvest a bird and get to enjoy my favorite gruel as a result of the hunt. However, recently I availed myself of an iteration of our white chili when my wife decided we shouldn’t wait for another turkey before enjoying it again. In a more accessible and domestic approach, we used chicken tenders to make the dish rather than cooking down the legs and breasts from a wild turkey. Granted there is a deeper more robust flavor to a wild turkey, but I’d be a liar if I said this wasn’t every bit as good. 

I get so busy with work and life that I sometimes forget what culinary season we are in. In this case, it’s quite appropriate that we happen to be in the throes of winter, amid many snowstorms already, which declare that it is none other than soup season. Seeing as how we are lacking in a surplus of squash, which my wife typically assaults me with every other meal all winter long, we’ve been enjoying the fruits of our canning labors and exploring a variety of new approaches to old recipes. As luck would have it, we happened to have a healthy supply of canned sweet corn, a key ingredient in the white chili recipe. What’s more, our frozen supply of chicken exceeds the meager amount of wild turkey that rarely makes it as far as the freezer. 

Depending on the time you have, there are two simple methods for building this chili. 

First is the tried and true method of ye olde crock-pot. Simply combine all the ingredients, set on low for the day and fish out the bones at the end of the day before feasting on a piping hot bowl of savory soup. Alternatively, as we decided to do today, one can build the chili in a pot on the stove, accelerating the timeline but requiring a few alternative steps to ensure doneness. While in a crock-pot, the turkey or chicken will cook through and fall apart. In a pot, one must first season and cook the meat, pulling it out to shred and or debone before returning it to the pot with the remainder of the ingredients. While faster, it technically takes a bit more work and or steps to complete. It does however offer the chef the option of thickness as the chili is being brought together.

The way out here, we love cooking with our quarry, but when that isn’t available it pays to have a domesticated backup. This turkey hunter also loves farm-raising a good chicken. Whether you hunt it or raise it, or gather it from ye olde supermarket, there’s no going wrong with this fine take on chili. It works great for me because it lacks the traditionally spicy and acidic nature of a red chili. For anyone seeking a savory yet subtle version themselves, this is nothing less than one of my favorites. 

white chili, the food out here

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