Jason celebrates the return of soups with a recipe for White Bean Chicken Chili

See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.

I’ve been ushering in winter by leaving all the windows open at night and getting the house down to 50 degrees during the day, just to get back in the slow cooker soups and stews of the colder months. They are easy, free up most of your cooking day, and can be very healthy if you pick the right ingredients. All you really need is some stock of some kind, a lean protein, and then anything you can chop with a chef knife is fair game to throw in there. Just don’t buy it in a can. As long as you have a slow cooker, this is as easy as it gets, and you can avoid all the weird mystery stuff floating around in the dark smelly depths of that pressure cooked disappointment. The list is long and strange:

Ingredients: Water, Cooked White Chicken Meat (White Chicken Meat, Water, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Sodium Phosphates), Navy Beans, Sour Cream (Cultured Milk, Cream, Whey, Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Carob Bean Gum), Modified Cornstarch, Contains 2% or less of Green Chile Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Bell Peppers, Sugar, Dehydrated Cheddar Cheese (Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Natural Flavors, Disodium Phosphate, Salt, Lactic Acid), Dehydrated Onions, Spices, Salt, Flavoring, Vinegar, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Yeast Extract, Citric Acid.

What is all that? Is it needed? Short answer…no. If you think you are confused by that list, imagine what your liver and pancreas think about it. We can do much better. Plus, making any soup or chili is a great excuse to make low carb cornbread, and if you haven’t done that yet, you are really missing out. It is the real deal. The link to that is www.mysaline.com/shirtless-1-cornbread.

So warm up that slow cooker and let the goodness simmer while you enjoy the cooler days. Eating clean means you will actually feel good enough to get outside, and chili with cornbread always tastes better after a day out in the fresh air.

White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

2 lb ground chicken
2 cans white beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can green chilies
1 yellow onion, diced
1 package mushrooms, rough chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 package grass fed cream cheese
4 oz grass fed pepper jack cheese
2 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp each onion and garlic powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp black pepper, sea salt to taste
2 tbsp grass fed butter

Instructions:

Brown the ground chicken with 1/2 tsp black pepper and sea salt until cooked through, then move to a bowl and cover. Add the butter to the pan and saute the onions and mushrooms until tender.

Add the rinsed beans, broth, and spices to the slow cooker, stir to combine. Add the cooked chicken and veggies, then set the time for at least 4 hours or up to 8, depending on when you want to eat. With about 30 minutes to go, add the cream cheese to melt: