Savory Chicken Chili

October 30, 2019

Savory Chicken Chili

My favorite times of year are spring and fall. Living in Alabama, the summers tend to be oppressively hot, and I’ve never cared for cold weather, especially when there’s no snow to make it semi-worthwhile, but fall and spring, especially in Alabama, the weather is perfect. We have so many flowers that bloom down here in the spring, and—because we’re in the South—spring starts in February. And after the loooong, horribly hot summer—beginning in May and extending even into September and October down here—we are all blessedly grateful for the first hint of cooler weather. But as much as I love the cooler temperatures, the pretty leaf colors and the pumpkins everywhere, I have to admit my favorite part of fall is that I can make soup again! 😊

I love soup. Soup is my comfort food. When I don’t feel well, or just feel down, nothing makes me feel better than a nice hot bowl of soup. Unfortunately for me, I married a man who hates soup. Jimmy hates casseroles (“everything’s just thrown together with no rhyme or reason”, he says), and he calls soup “a casserole with broth”. He also tends to be hot-natured, so you can just forget about getting him to eat soup in the summer when it’s 100 degrees out there. And frankly, I can’t fault his logic on that, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting soup for myself. I love fall because the cooler temperatures mean I can make (almost) as many soups as I want and not have to eat them all by myself. 😉

I love to cook, but I’m mostly self-taught, and I am not very confident when it comes to making up stuff on my own. I don’t have that sixth sense some people have of knowing exactly what spice or other ingredient is needed to make something taste great—I have to follow a recipe. So the soup I’m going to share with you today stands out because I can honestly say it’s the only recipe I’ve ever come up with on my own…and it’s a good one. So good that wherever I take it, people ask for the recipe and then make it themselves. So good that I’m asked to bring it whenever soup is on the menu for a church potluck or dinner. So good that my husband actually asks for it in cold weather!

It all started when we were first married. I wanted to make some chicken chili for supper one night, but every recipe I’ve ever seen is some variation of White Lightning Chili—translation: super spicy. That’s all well and good, but I don’t really care for very spicy food. So finally I took a recipe from a Taste of Home chicken cookbook I own, and changed it to fit my idea of what a chicken chili should taste like.

First of all, in my mind, it’s not chili if it doesn’t have chili powder or kidney beans, something regrettably lacking in all those other recipes. And while I didn’t necessarily want it super spicy, it did need to be flavorful, because I can’t stand bland food. Finally, when we got ready to eat it, it seemed a little thin to both of us, so I added some leftover rice I had in the fridge to the pot, and perfection!

Trust me, the rice might seem a little weird in a chili recipe, but it is what makes this soup! And if you don’t have leftover rice on hand (as I often don’t), you can just make some ahead of time and stick it in the fridge. Cooling the rice keeps it from becoming too sticky and absorbing too much liquid in the soup.

I’ve used chicken breasts in this recipe and chicken thighs, and I really don’t see much difference between the two, so go with whatever you have on hand. (I usually buy whatever’s cheaper.) Sauté your chicken with the onion and garlic powder (and trust me, it’s not too much garlic powder—you need all 2 tablespoons of that!), then add in your broth, beans, tomatoes and spices.

You may notice that there's chicken base in the above picture. Jimmy's allergic to MSG (monosodium glutamate), an ingredient that is in just about every broth, base or bouillon you can buy in the store, so I had to search the shelves to find something safe for him to eat. Because of this I always make my own chicken broth, either using broth made from boiling chicken on the stove or by combining MSG-free chicken base with water. My preferred brand is Orrington Farms--it's completely safe and has a great flavor. And it's not too expensive. 😉

I usually drain one can of kidney beans and use the juice from the other one for flavor preferences, but whatever floats your boat. I always drain the can of tomatoes because Jimmy’s also allergic to the citric acid in tomatoes, so the less citric acid, the better, but that’s again totally optional.