EASY Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

One of the blogs I frequent is Frugal Upstate. She's in part 3 of a "frugal foods" series, which I need to go back through and scour for recipes. First was eggs, then tuna, now it's beans. If you're on a budget or just want some different things to throw into your menu rotation, definitely check these out. At the end of each post, there are links to dozens of other blogs with recipes to try.

One of the links lead me to a great suggestion on reconstituting dry beans. She puts the beans in water in her crock pot, on low, before going to bed and they're ready to go in the morning. Genius!

One of my favorite recipes that requires beans is chili. I make chili about once a week...either regular chili (I'm in love with the Better Homes and Garden's "New Cookbook" recipe) or my friend Erin's White Chicken Chili recipe, which I want to share with you. It is SO easy and really delicious. Frugal Upstate had a similar recipe for Chicken Chili Blanco that I tried tonight and it was great, too. (I left out the mushrooms because...well...ew.) I think I'll interchange the two because they have slightly different tastes and one obviously has more ingredients, but less chicken. I think hers is cheaper, but Erin's is easier because I've made it 100 times. Try them both and decide for yourself!

White Chicken Chili

- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 64 ounces canned great northern beans
- 1 can (14 ounces) chicken broth
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 2 cans (4 ounces each) chopped green chilies
- red pepper flakes to taste
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
Optional
- sour cream
- salsa
- shredded Monterey jack cheese

Place chicken in crock pot in the morning (I even throw in the frozen bagged chicken) with 1 can chicken broth or water. Cook on low 5-6 hours. Take two forks and gently tear apart the chicken in the crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook 1 more hour.

To make life easier, you can use 3 big cans of chicken breast instead of cooking and chopping, and I use a container of frozen chopped onion from Trader Joe’s.

This can also be drained a little and served on tortillas.

* Most of the time what I do is stick 6-8 frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot with some cumin and stock/broth in the morning, cook it on low all day, shread the chicken in the afternoon and freeze about 1/2 of the shredded chicken (to be used in enchiladas or other recipes later), then dump the beans, onions and green chiles in and let it crock for the last hour before we're going to eat. Other times, I'll double the batch and freeze ½ in a large zip lock to defrost when I don’t have time to cook.