White Chicken Chili?

A few years ago, a friend sent me a package of Buckeye Beans & Herbs White Chicken Chili.  I cooked it back then and am a little sad that I did not blog about it a bit sooner.. The Buckeye Beans & Herbs company is based in Kent WA. and sells a variety of bean and soup products.  I think they may focus on dishes unique to the Northwest.  They may have even once distributed only in the Northwest, but lucky for everyone, it seems they are branching out.  I've seen their products advertised on Target and other stores' web pages, but you can definitely find them here: CLICK HERE.

The first thing I thought was... "White Chili??? What the heck is white chili?"  It intrigued me, and this friend of mine has not steered me wrong with food yet. So, I went and got the additional ingredients required... a large onion, a couple pounds of chicken breast and a can of green chilies... The box calls for mild green chilies, but I couldn't find one with a heat rating.. so I just got a small can of green chilies from the Mexican Food isle... they did not turn out to be what I would call 'mild.'

As I started making it, I thought to myself... "This isn't chili at all."  In Texas, or at least a little deeper south, this would be considered a 'bean' dish.  that got me to thinkin' 'what IS chili?'  Have you really ever thought about it?  Some folks say that chili is a type of stew.  That's what I originally thought, but then I thought of the difference in consistency of chili and stew.  Although you can have a stew with a thick gravy, most of the time, they are much thinner than your typical chili.  Good chili has a thick, almost porridge like consistency... but does the consistency matter?

Some people I've known will put chili powder in left over spaghetti sauce, and eat it as chili.  Is that chili?  If you take spicy spaghetti sauce and put it over spaghetti is it spaghetti and meat sauce or is it Cincinnati's famous 5-way chili?

One web site mentioned that chili was once described by a travel writer (that's what they called bloggers in the 1800's) named J.C. Clopper on a trip to San Antonio.  He mentioned that the poorer residents of the town had to make their meat go a long way.  It didn't matter what they got that day... beef, chicken, you name it... they would chop it into a fine mash and stew it.

There are definitely regional differences when it comes to chili.  A Mexican friend of mine, years ago, after I explained what Texas chili was, said "oh! That's chili beans!"  I was expecting her to say "Chili con carne," but she said "chili beans," and, having been raised on a number of southern bean dishes, all having some sort of meat floating around in them, and most having a very think porridge-like consistency, that's what I was thinking when I sat down before my fragrant bowl of Buckeye Beans & Herbs White Chicken Chili.  "I'm gonna have me a bowl of beans!"

Oh, how wrong I was... even today... several years after the fact... I remember the flavor pouring through my senses when I took that first bite... the green chilies were some of the hottest I've ever eaten, but the heat did not overpower the flavor.  The heat was also the perfect complement to the seasonings of the chili.  Being made with chicken instead of beef added to the uniqueness.  I've had some good chili in my day, but they all sort of merge together in my memory.  None stand out, but I can remember this bowl of white chicken chili... and I remember thinking that it was one of THE best bowls of chili I ever had.

BOO! It's the Spooky Whopper

OOOOOO... Halloween comes a little early, or at least the season has begun, and Burger King starts it off with their Halloween Whopper. 

Yeah, I know.. the pictures in this post are pretty scary... 


I'm not typically a slave of advertising, but when I saw the adds, I had to get one as soon as I could.  The Whopper is quite possibly my favorite burger and I LOVE A1 sauce... I put it on everything from steaks to hot dogs and in sauces and soups.  The add claims that they baked A1 sauce into the bun, and I had my doubts... I mean look at it... it really doesn't look that appetizing... does it?

Well, they were true to their word...with the first bite, it tasted like A1 sauce was slathered on the burger, but it wasn't.  All the A1 flavor was in the bun, and sometimes, when the A1 taste sort of mixed with the ketchup it tasted a little like there was bar-b-q sauce on it too.. but that was some sort of magic flavor illusion.  Yep, Spooky looking burgers and magical flavors... I'd say the Halloween season is off to a delicious start.

WOW... The return of cast iron

For some years now, every Labor Day, a group of friends from around Texas have gotten together and played board games.  We stay in a cabin in the words, gloriously off the grid and away from mobile technology... for the most part.  This cabin belongs to a friend's family and has some fairly old cookware in it... by 'fairly old' I mean vintage cast iron.  Each year I forget to check if it is Wagner, Griswald or neither.  It doesn't really matter, its at least two generations old, and good as new.  When I cook on it, I'm always amazed at how truly non-stick it really is.  I also learn what it means to be non-stick.  Your food won't be slippin' and slidin' all over the place.  You won't have to chase your grilled cheese as it slides away from your spatula... but if you pay attention to what you are doing, your food will not burn or stick and clean up will be a breeze..

After doing some cooking at the cabin, I decided to get back into cast iron.  Readers may remember that I had a fun adventure seasoning my Lodge cast iron skillet some years ago.  I may also have mentioned that at one point the seasoning started to flake off, and I just got fed up, packed it in a box

for my move and forgot about it... too much trouble... That was old ignorance... I took the old lodge out of the box, and, I must have done something right, because the cooking surface was unmarred.  There were a few spots of about 1 millimeter of rust on the outside and handle, but other than that, it looked EXACTLY like it did when I put it in the box years ago.

A little elbow grease and a single layer of re-seasoning and presto... it was back in action.  I used it for a few simple meals this week and was reminded of some of the things I really like about cast iron.  First, it is easy to find pieces made in the U.S.A.  I do not have the room to explain why that's important... but suffice it to say that it is important to me. 

Second, cast iron is indestructible... If anything you do in your kitchen can damage cast iron, you need to consider joining the Avengers.  On that note, you can do what you need to do... you can slam that STAINLESS STEEL spatula against that pan and flip that egg... you can take it off the stove with that sizzling steak and put it in a 500 degree oven... you can take a metal knife and cut into that steak or chicken to see how done it is.  A lot of this would ruin other cookware.. and trust me.. I've ruined some cookware... I've melted nylon forks in steaks and caught pots (yes plural) on fire. 

Third, its cheap.  You will spend one tenth on cast iron what you will spend for other quality non-stick cookware.  You will also typically replace every piece of non-stick cookware at least once in your life which doubles its cost.

Fourth, no 'chemicals' or should I say no 'weird' industrial chemicals you and medical science don't really know much about come near your food.  It's iron.... dug up from the ground and made from rocks... you understand rocks and iron... you probably don't know where the heck Polytetrafluoroethylene comes from or even what it is... but people cook on it.  With cast iron, you can also avoid silicon, nylon, and all kinds of other petroleum or polymer based utensils.  The only thing that will leach into your food is iron.

Most important of all... IT COOKS GREAT!!!! Last night as an experiment, I fried shredded cheddar cheese in it, and nothing stuck.  This morning, I cooked my breakfast in it, and was amazed... I've only recently been trying to make omelets 'the right way,' and had I known how to flip this baby this morning, it would have been restaurant quality.  The secret to an omelette  is 1) use butter.. and 2) to cook it slowly until it is thoroughly firm and able to fold.. I messed up the fold.. but otherwise it was fluffy and just right.