Quick White Chicken Chili

Springtime in Minnesota is unpredictable, beautiful, annoying, and fickle. Admire early blooms one day, shovel snow the next. Grill and sit in the sun one day, shiver and build a fire for warmth the next.

This is one of those days. After a beautiful, sunny, and warm weekend, we got hit with this blast of Arctic air and a wind that rips right thru you. White Chicken Chili is the perfect meal for such a day! But I also worked all day long, so it had to be a quick meal. Thank goodness for the pressure cooker!

Even though there are dozens of ways to make white chili, this recipe is quick and hearty.

I swung by the butcher shop and picked up a chicken breast. She must have been a DD-girl, because one breast weighed 1.4 pounds. Woah!

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Then core and chop the fennel bulb and stalks – reserving the fronds. Chop the onion and garlic, and dice the carrots and celery. It’s so much easier to get all that done in advance, in fact, I’ve done the prep work in the morning before the day goes haywire, and supper is that much quicker.

Heat oil in the pressure cooker on “brown” setting, then add the onion, carrots, celery, and fennel. Allow them to cook for a couple minutes before adding the chicken. Brown all of this together, stirring frequently, until the chicken is almost done – about 5 additional minutes.

While the meat and veggies are browning, put all the spices together in a spice grinder (or use a mortar and pestle) to lightly crush them. Dried herbs and spices need to “wake up” after their long winters’ nap in the cupboard. Add them to the pressure cooker.

Drain and rinse, and drain the cannellini beans again. What is that goopy sauce anyway??? Add the beans to the cooker, along with the chicken broth. Close it up and cook on high for 5 minutes.

While that’s cooking, strip kale leaves from the tough stem and roughly chop. Grate the parmesan cheese.

Using the quick release method, let the steam out of the pressure cooker. Add the frozen corn and kale. Close it up, and cook for 1 minute on high. Turn off the pressure cooker when it signals time is up, and allow to stand for a couple minutes before releasing the pressure again.

Ladle into serving bowls, and serve with plenty of freshly grated parmesan, flat leaf parsley, and the reserved fennel fronds.

Print