Baked white chicken chilli

Mr Pickings was famous back in the day for his vegetarian chilli.  Based on zucchini, smothered in cheese, and served with bright yellow rice.  Or when he was feeling daring, it would be blue or green rice.  I think green rice was my fave. And sadly I cannot tell you it was all natural; oh no, it was good old fake colouring from a bottle.  Heaven knows what it did to our stomachs.  I once drank some punch at a party that had been coloured bright blue.  I swear I only had a cup and a half, but I was knocked out for the entire night and lay comatose in the driveway till the party was over.  Nobody could get me to move!  Ahem, moving on.  I have happened to chance upon a few different recipes for chicken chilli lately.  Preferring fish and chicken to red meat, this sounded ideal for dinner.  I have looked at quite a few recipes and just made up my own version finally.  I saw a couple of recipes that included cream cheese which sounds really odd. Quite a few recipes mention mashing half the beans so that it gets thicker.  I decided to do a bit of both! So in my final version I have 125 g of Philly cheese, and half a can of mashed white beans.  I think it is quite delicious, as does Mr Pickings.


ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil
750g. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced into 2cm pieces (approx. 3 breasts)
1 red onion, chopped
125g. red capsicum, diced
1 jalapeno chilli, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs lightly dried coriander
1 tbs cumin
1 tbs ground coriander
1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne
1 tbs dried oregano
10-12 twists of black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
3/4 cup frozen corn
2 x 400g. cans of white beans - I used organic cannellini
1/2 a lime, juiced
125g. cream cheese cut into small pieces
500mls. chicken stock
extra lime and fresh coriander leaves for serving

method:

Heat the oil in a large frypan
Add the chicken pieces and fry till opaque; this will only take a few minutes
Place the chicken into a large casserole dish/roaster with a lid
Throw the onion, capsicum, chilli and garlic into the same frypan
Stir around till softened
Then add the dried coriander, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne, oregano, pepper and paprika
Stir these into the onion mixture, and cook for a few minutes
Tip this onto the chicken pieces in the dish
Add the corn and 1 + 1/2 cans of the beans
Mash the other half can of beans with a fork or masher till you have a lumpy puree
This goes into the dish too
Pour the lime juice and cut-up cream cheese over the chicken and vegetables
Pour in the chicken stock
Put the lid on, and bake for around 50-55 minutes at 190C
Add lime wedges and snipped fresh coriander to each bowl
Serve with sour cream and grated cheese if desired

ingredients

chilli, onion and capsicum ready to fry 

starting to soften

spices added

chicken starting to turn opaque 

throwing in the cream cheese

spooning in the mushed beans 

pouring in the stock 

ready to eat with lime and coriander 

Ok, you caught me out there.  I in fact cooked up the onion and spices first, then the chicken.  It doesn't matter; either way is good as you can re-use the frypan.  I think this may turn out to be a firm fave of the Pickings household as it is easy and delicious.  Once everything is chopped, you just fry it up and throw it into the oven.  What could be easier?