Recipe – Christmas Eve Crockpot White Chicken Chili – SO GOOD!

So many of my friends love finding a really good crockpot recipe to make a big batch of something to have on hand for drop-by friends or to serve on Christmas Eve when you get home from church services. With that thought in mind, I went scouring the internetz for a really good recipe to try and came up with this one. You are gonna LOVE this! We just had it again today for lunch and it is even better warmed up and served leftover.

Confession: Although I typically like to cook with as much fresh, organic, natural food (I really should own stock in WholeFoods), I did grab a bunch of these items right out of my pantry since I wanted to do this very easily and quickly.

Although it is a crockpot recipe I’ve come up with, I highly recommend sauteing the onions and very briefly adding in the garlic to softly cooked onions BEFORE adding to crockpot. If you are really in a hurry, I suppose you could throw it all in together and it would turn out just as good. This recipe has a little bit of a kick to it (jalapeno heat) but it is actually very mild. Since it does have a tiny bit of heat, I like serving it along-side an arugala salad with a slightly sweetened salad dressing (I used maple syrup and mixed in some olive oil, balsamic vinegar & a dash of spicy mustard). The heat really compliments the sweetness of the dressing…really yummy! If you like wine, try serving this with a nice buttery chilled Chardonnay.

Carole’s Christmas Eve Crockpot White Chicken Chili

4 Servings

1 TB veggie oil
1 chopped yellow onion, large
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (4 oz) can diced jalapeno peppers
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chili pepper
3 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper (or chipotle)
1 (32 oz) carton of chicken broth
3 cups chopped, cooked chicken breast (I used 2 cans chicken from Costco)
3 (15 oz) cannellini beans (white)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Garnish: White corn tortilla chips, sour cream, cilantro

Easy-Peasy Directions

1. Heat up veggie oil in skillet. Cook onions until soft (about 5 minutes). Right before removing from heat, add in the crushed garlic and cook just briefly. (Overcooking makes the garlic bitter.)
2. Add the onion/garlic mixture to the crockpot with everything else and let cook on low for several hours.
3. Right before serving, stir in about 1/3 of the cheese and use remaining cheese on top of bowls of chili.

DELISH! Top with tortilla chips, sour cream, cilantro and Monterey Jack Cheese…maybe some freshly ground pepper too. Hope you enjoy this for the holiday season as much as we are!