Sunday Supper: White Chili with Acorn Squash

The official last day of summer was Sunday and I decided to welcome the crisp, colorful season of fall by cooking a good hearty pot of white chili in the slow cooker. I love that thing. You put in all of the necessary ingredients and leave it alone for hours. It's like a sous chef that finishes the job for you.

I began preparations around 1:00 pm expecting to have everything in the crock pot by 1:30 pm. The white chili takes about 5 hours to cook on low in the slow cooker so it would be ready around 6:30 pm. I began by boiling 4 cups of chicken tenders in a large pot of water until they began to float. I hate the smell of boiling chicken, but it is the easiest and quickest way to cook it that I have found. I drained the chicken and let the tenders cool in a colander. While the chicken was cooling, I chopped a large onion. Holding back the tears, I ran a garlic clove through a garlic press and put all of the cut onion and pressed garlic in a stove top pan with 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat. I allowed the garlic and onion to cook until tender.

I turned the crock pot to low and emptied the cooked garlic and onion from the pot and poured in the 3 cups of chicken broth. I then shredded the cooled down chicken tenders and put them in the crock pot. I stirred in the remaining ingredients, stirred it up a bit and covered the slow cooker. It needs to be stirred occasionally throughout the 5 hour cooking time.

Once the chili was ready, I served it with chopped tomatoes and tortilla chips for dipping. I will say that the acorn squash was an addition that I normally do not use. I bought it fresh at the Market and thought I would try it out. I think I prefer the white chili without the nutty squash taste, but it did add to the heartiness factor. When it gets a little colder, I will post one of my favorite soup recipes that calls for acorn squash.


INGREDIENTS
·1/4 cup butter
·1 large onion (chopped)
·1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
·4 cups of cooked chicken or turkey (1/2 cubes)
·3 cups chicken broth
·2 tbsps chopped fresh cilantro
·1 tbsp dried basil leaves
·2 tbsps groud red chilies or chili powder
·1/4 tsp groud cloves
·2 cans (15-16 oz.) great northern beans (undrained)
·1/2 acorn squash (chopped into 1 inch cubes) optional
·1 medium tomato
· tortilla chips

Mangia!
Fall is here!