I recently made a batch of chicken broth with a carcass I had stashed in the freezer. You do this, right? Have a stash of roasted bones in the freezer just for making stock? So anyway, I was down to my last jar of broth and needed to make a batch. There was just enough meat that came off the bones to make a pot of soup, but I sensed by my family’s reaction that one more pot of straight up chicken soup – or really, any variation thereof to be honest –  might be one pot too many for this winter soup season. That’s when I realized I hadn’t made Dorie’s White  Chili in some time and that might be a nice change.

See the reflection of my bedroom windows on my lap top screen?

I had gotten the recipe from Dorie a few Oyster Fests ago, and as I started looking for the recipe, I realized it was one of those I had just snapped a photo of on my phone. Having recently gotten a new phone (yay!), the photo was in the cloud and on my laptop, but not on my new phone. Rather than take the time to download it onto the new phone and lacking the space in my kitchen to have my laptop set up, I did the next best thing – snapped a bad shot, or three as it was, of the photo on my laptop screen with my new one. As one does.

Which is why I’m sharing this recipe here. It would seem my picture of a picture on a screen method of recipe keeping is just not entirely sustainable or organized. I know, go figure. By putting the recipe here, I can pull it up anytime,  especially as I have my recipe page bookmarked on my phone for referencing when I need it.

As I was making this with items I had on hand and I have a hard time following recipes to the last detail (particularly soup), I’m going to share Dorie’s as written with my own variations noted.

Before I get to that though, we need to talk about this pie. It’s a peach pie, made in for Pi Day this week. I couldn’t remember if I had put sugar in the filling before I put it in the freezer, so rather than make an overly sweet pie, I took my chances and skipped adding what could have been more sugar. Turns out, I added no sugar to the fruit, which turned out quite alright.  I also decided to add a dash of cinnamon that I had seen called for in a few peach pie recipes – not enough to really taste it, but I do think it added a little something.  The crust was a half cup cake flour, half cup whole wheat pastry flour and a full cup all purpose flour and easily was one of the best pie crusts I’ve ever made. The entire pie was definitely in my top five of all time. I need to remember cake flour in my pie crusts from here on out and you need to try it too.

Okay, the chili. Keep in mind I made it with what I had on hand, so my notes are in bold.

Dorie’s White Chili

4 chicken breasts (leftover roasted chicken)
2 cans white beans (one can beans, one quart bag frozen corn)
1 small onion, chopped
6 Tbsp Butter
1/4 c flour
1 1/2 c reserved broth
2 c milk
2 4oz. cans green chilies (one slightly seeded jalapeño from last summer’s garden via the freezer)
1 1/2 c grated Monterey Jack Cheese (totally didn’t add this and it was fine)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder (2 teaspoons)
1 tsp cumin
Salt & Pepper

Cook chicken, set aside, reserving broth.
Cream butter & flour – add chopped onion, broth & milk. Add seasoning, chicken, chili, cheese & beans.
(Saute onion in butter, adding jalapeno a few minutes in. Add flour and stir until flour is absorbed by butter and slightly cooked. Add seasoning and cook another minute, stirring constantly. Add broth, chicken and beans (and corn) and bring to a simmer. Stir in milk and heat through. Stir in cheese until melted.)