White Chili with a Kick

November in Memphis, and the spring is doing what spring does: arriving without permission, bringing color to a city that spent the winter in gray. I am 60 and still walking my mail route through Midtown Memphis, and the week was alive with the energy of things beginning — buds on the dogwoods, warmth in the morning air, the smell of earth waking up.

The week\'s main current was late march. The family moved through the week the way we move through all weeks — together even when apart, connected by phone calls and text messages and the invisible threads that bind a family across distance and time. Rosetta held the center, as she always does, the organizing principle of the Johnson household, the woman who knows where everyone is and what everyone needs before they know it themselves.

I cooked this week the way I cook every week: with intention, with the ingredients at hand, and with the understanding that food made in a home kitchen for people you love is fundamentally different from food made anywhere else. The recipe doesn\'t matter as much as the hands that make it and the table that receives it. I stood at my stove or sat beside my smoker and I made big pot of gumbo — comfort cooking, and the making was the medicine, and the eating was the communion, and the cleaning up afterward was the humility that every cook needs — the reminder that the meal is over but the feeding continues, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Rosetta came to the porch as the last light faded and said something simple — \'Good day, Earl\' or \'What a week\' or just my name, the way she says it when she means everything and says nothing. And I said something simple back, or said nothing, and we sat in the amber glow of the porch light and let the week dissolve into the night, and the night was kind, and the morning would come, and there would be coffee and the route and the smoker and the family and the life that is, despite everything, despite the grief and the knee and the changing world, a good life. A full life. A life measured in smoke.

When I talk about a big pot of comfort cooking, this is the kind of thing I mean — a White Chili with a Kick, something that fills the kitchen with warmth and lets you breathe a little easier while it simmers. After a week of routes and phone calls and the quiet communion of the porch, what I needed was a pot that did the work while I watched it, something that asked nothing of me but a little patience. Rosetta doesn’t need much convincing when the smell reaches the living room.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cans (15 oz each) white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, plus more for topping
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Saute the base. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more, stirring so it doesn’t burn.
Brown the chicken. Add the cubed chicken to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink on the outside, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Build the pot. Stir in the green chiles, cumin, chili powder, oregano, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Pour in the chicken broth and add the drained beans. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let the chili simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and the flavors have melded together.
Finish creamy. Remove the pot from heat. Stir in the sour cream and shredded Monterey Jack cheese until fully incorporated and the chili is thick and creamy.
Serve and top. Ladle into bowls and top with additional shredded cheese and fresh cilantro if desired. Serve with warm cornbread or crackers on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

White Chili with a Kick — The Big Pot That Holds Everything Together