Hearty White Bean Chili

I’m always in the mood for great chicken recipe and I’m always on the hunt for chili recipes. So, when chicken meets chili, I’m not only on board, I’m on board with spoon in hand.  The following recipe for white chili calls for some of the ingredients that make white chili (or chicken chili as some call it) so spectacular – but it also calls for one of the most unexpected… yet tempting… ingredients you’ll ever find in a chili recipe. Nielsen-Massey Pure Chocolate Extract!  I’m entirely intrigued because one of the things I”m even more in love with than chicken or chili is chocolate.

Enjoy!

Hearty White Bean Chili Recipe

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, medium dice
1 cup finely diced onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup organic chicken stock
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (7-ounce) can diced green chiles
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons dried organic parsley
1 tablespoon dried organic oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey Pure Chocolate Extract
1 (15-ounce) can white kidney beans, drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until brown. Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the onion to the sauté pan and cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wood spoon to deglaze.

Pour the stock mixture into a large saucepot and add the cooked chicken, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chiles, cumin, parsley, oregano, cayenne pepper and salt. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chocolate extract and white kidney beans. Cook for 10 minutes.

Ladle the chili into soup bowls and garnish with the Parmesan cheese.

Serves 6.

Note: Caramelization cooks the naturally occurring sugars in food and improves their flavor and appearance.

Deglaze means to stir a liquid, usually wine, in a sauté pan to loosen the cooked food particles from the pan.

Nielsen-Massey Vanillas on Amazon:

About Nielsen-Massey Vanillas
Throughout its more than 100 year history, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas has earned its reputation as a manufacturer of the finest extracts in the world. The full line of Nielsen-Massey’s Pure Vanilla products include: Vanilla Beans and Extracts from Madagascar, Tahiti and Mexico; sugar and alcohol-free Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Powder; Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste; Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Sugar and Certified Organic Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract and Beans.

Nielsen-Massey Vanillas also has a line of Pure Flavors: Pure Chocolate Extract, Pure Almond Extract, Pure Orange Extract, Pure Lemon Extract, Pure Coffee Extract, Pure Peppermint Extract, Orange Blossom Water and Rose Water. All Nielsen-Massey products are Allergen-Free and certified Kosher and Gluten-Free. The company is headquartered in Waukegan, Illinois, with production facilities in Waukegan and Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.