Friday, January 15, 2016

White Chicken Chili

with Missy Tippens

With the new year and wanting to try to eat better, I recently tried a new service. It's called $5 Meal Plans. For $5 a month, you receive menus and shopping lists for six main dishes a week (plus some extras). I really like it so far! Especially the shopping list. I don't buy everything, only items for those dishes that I plan to make (it's coded so you can figure out which items go with which recipes). I also love that the recipes are healthy, and they're not expensive. They say that each meal costs about $2 or less per person. (Note, I do NOT receive compensation for telling you about this. :))


The first menu item I tried making was the White Chicken Chili. I loved it! Here's my adaptation.



White Chicken Chili
Adapted from $5 Meal Plans

15 oz can Great Northern white beans (or make using dried beans by soaking ahead of time)

2 large boneless chicken breasts
1 small white onion (I used a sweet onion), chopped
4 oz can green chilies
4 cups chicken broth
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sour cream (I used light sour cream)
½ cup heavy cream or whole milk (I used light half-and-half)



Heat onions in soup pot in a little bit of olive oil until softened. (The original recipe has you start out by just dumping most of the ingredients into the pot. But I always like to cook my onions a little first.) 




Add the chicken, broth, chilies, and spices. Let simmer for 30 minutes.




Use two forks to shred the meat. I pulled out the chicken to do this so I wouldn't splatter hot broth all over the place.





Add the chicken back to the pot. Stir in the half-and-half and sour cream and serve immediately.




This was so simple and delicious! I've also made an amazing Thai Curry Salmon. I think I'm going to really enjoy $5 Meal Plans!

23 comments:

  1. I've never heard of this and it sounds so good! I get stuck in the same meals over and over. This sounds like it would give you a list and enough time to get ingredients, rather than that last minute rush to find something to cook.
    And I love green chiles. My husband prefers those red arbol chiles but they have a really different flavor, in my opinion. :) Looks YUMMY

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    1. Virginia, I'm the same way. Get stuck in my rut--and that usually means pulling a pound of ground beef out of the freezer to make spaghetti. I really need to eat less beef, so this has been great for me! (BTW, I make spaghetti so often I burned my kids out on it.)

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  2. What a neat service. Brilliant really. A great way to get creative in the kitchen without pouring over cookbooks or googling for recipes (that always takes me ages.) And do be so organized that they give you a shopping list too. Someone was very, very clever to create that.

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    1. Kav, it has been great for having the ingredients on hand to try something new during the week (without a last minute run to the grocery store--which I usually refuse to do). :)

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  3. The chili looks so good! Perfect for a cold winter day!

    I used to subscribe to a service similar to this one. It's called "Saving Dinner," and I heard about it on the Flylady website.

    The pros? Delicious recipes, and I didn't feel like I was stuck in a rut of cooking the same meals over and over.

    The cons? My dear husband LIKES the same meals over and over. :)

    So my Saving Dinner menus are in a binder. I occasionally pull them out - and I did add several of the recipes to our "same meals over and over" rotation.

    But I enjoyed the new ideas for that age-old question, "What's for dinner?" :)

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    1. I just signed up for the free 14-day trial - what a deal!

      I'll get to see if we like the meal plans before spending any money. :)

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    2. But why try to improve on perfection?

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    3. Because I don't like spending an hour every week coming up with the menu and shopping list! LOL!

      I read Tina's archive post on Seekerville this morning - why am I spending so much time on the menu and grocery list? It should be a no-brainer. :)

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    4. BTW - You all know which "anonymous" person thinks the same meals over and over is the definition of "perfection", right?

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    5. LOL, Jan (and Jan's hubby)! :) Jan, I'm glad you're trying it! You'll love the shopping list. I open the file and just print the last two pages (onto one sheet, front and back).

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    6. Oh Jan, I have the same problem. If it's Monday - hamburger; Tuesday - chicken, etc. I never eat what he's eating - except for the fish on Friday and sometimes pasta on Saturday. Not very time or cost-efficient, but there's no changing him now.

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  4. This looks delicious and easy and wonderful. And I run into the same thing Jan does, a man who likes the tried and true! But he's had to do a little improv if he wants to eat, because Mama's been busy.... so stuff like this is man-friendly!

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    1. Ruthy, he could definitely make this, especially if he uses the "dump it all in at once" version. :)

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  5. Mindy, if you read this… I have to apologize for never believing how mild these chilies are! You said it, and I doubted you since I'm such a wimp. But they really do just add flavor and not really heat!

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  6. I'm with Jan. It takes me forever to figure out a menu plan so we eat the same ole same ole as well. I think I'm gonna give this a try. Thanks for the info Missy! BTW.... The chili looks yummy!!!

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  7. Sounds intriguing Missy. I'll look forward to hearing about more of these recipes.

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  8. Me again. Does this really work for under $5 other places in the country? I looked at the sample menu and there is no way I could purchase those ingredients for under $5. The hamburger alone in one of the recipes would be between $5 and $6. Just curious what it's like for others.

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    1. I noticed that, too, and we have pretty good prices in the PNW. Just tonight, a few lbs of hamburger (local, so can be a lot cheaper than anything imported or shipped from CA) was 7.99. The rest of the meal was also cheap (spaghetti, sauce, mozzerella) but all together it was definitely about $20, and that's a very "cheap" meal. $5 would be cereal and milk. :) Or homemade pancakes (not a mix).

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    2. It's not $5 for the meal. It's $5 for the service. For $5 they give you a full week's meal plan. The meals themselves are supposed to cost about $2 per person. :)

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    3. BTW, it's $5 a month for the meal plans. NOT per week. :)

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  9. Missy, this is one of my favorite meals! I haven't tried it with the half & half. I'm going to try it!

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    1. You'll have to let me know how it turns out, Donna!

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