Easy Chicken Chili, Made with Leftovers
February 10, 2010
Kalyn posted her sister-in-law’s recipe for white chicken chili (Amy’s Amazing White Chicken Chili) on Twitter recently, and I knew immediately I wanted to make it. I have a backlog of dinners I want to make when my parents are here — Hot & Sour Soup and Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans, to name a couple — but this chili sounded too good to put in the “to try, eventually” folder. I was not disappointed.
I followed Kalyn’s basic recipe, but instead of prepping chicken breasts specifically for the dish, I used leftover roasted chicken from the night before. It was mostly breast meat, with a little dark meat too. I removed all the meat from the bone and roughly chopped it into bite-sized pieces; I wound up with 3 cups worth. Then I picked up her recipe after she explained cooking the chicken. Using leftovers made this chili super-easy, and what a totally different way to make use of a chicken two nights in a row!
Other changes I made: I am apparently out of oregano, so I omitted it. My chiles didn’t say anything about the variety of pepper — I used two 4.5-oz. cans of Old El Paso chopped chiles. Even with this quantity it has a lovely warmth, but is not a gasp-for-beer spicy dish. Next time I would chose fresh jalapeño peppers instead, though I did enjoy the soft texture of the canned chiles. I used 3 cups of homemade chicken stock and did not add the additional flavor base — it didn’t need it. I rinse and drain my beans to cut down the salt content a bit. And I used a lot of cilantro, about a cup, chopped. You can add salt and pepper to taste.
We ate this chili with Bachman MultiGrain Tortilla Chips, the first time I’ve tried this variety. They were excellent and have a better nutritional profile than traditional chips. Me and my parents loved this meal, though not surprisingly the boys wouldn’t try the chili. A. ate a couple of chips, but perhaps because they were brown and somewhat healthy-looking G. could not be convinced to even eat those.
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Filed under: Poultry
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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8 Comments
1.
magpie | February 10, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Mmm. I made chili today too, because there were two leftover hamburgers in the fridge and all the right other stuff. So, I too used precooked meat. It was great. And I included a few cooked sweet potatoes – which is a good way to hide them – their flavor was imperceptible what with all the other stuff going on.
2.
Grammy | February 11, 2010 at 8:55 am
Great hot taste, even for one who is not a cilantro fan.
3.
Kalynskitchen | February 11, 2010 at 9:56 am
I’m glad you liked the chili! I wish I had more left myself, ate the last of it a few days ago.
4.
Aunt Barbara | February 13, 2010 at 10:14 am
I just copied this recipe, Dara, and will use it soon.
5.
Aunt Barbara | February 13, 2010 at 10:16 am
I’m interested in your reaction to the Cheesy Baked Farro. If you like it, I’d try it using barley (the alternate suggestion).
6. chickinthekitchen.com &ra&hellip | February 15, 2010 at 9:22 am
[...] was especially pleased with the Easy Chicken Chili, Made with Leftovers. I had roasted chicken on Monday night, and chopped up the leftover meat to use in this chili on [...]
7. chickinthekitchen.com &ra&hellip | February 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
[...] (Ina Garten’s Beatty’s Chococlate Cake, which has a coffee kick to it), and a batch of Easy Chicken Chili. Otherwise, the week was largely a wash cooking-wise, and I ate very poorly too. I am glad our [...]
8. Menu Plan Monday, 5/10 &#&hellip | February 26, 2012 at 7:49 pm
[...] Easy Chicken Chili, tortilla chips, raw red pepper & [...]
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