I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Between all three hospitals in the Heartland Division, we served around 700 turkey dinners the patients, staff and visitors.
We did an overnight meal at all three locations the night before Thanksgiving and served the turkey dinner to the staff that work the night shift and then served Thanksgiving dinner all day on Thursday.
It took 55 turkeys to serve the 700 turkey dinners for this Thanksgiving.
As I start to feel a little fall in the air, I start to think about making those dishes that are heartier than the ones I make during the spring and summer. During the winter is when I like to make a lot of one-pot wonder dishes like my Mom's cowboy macaroni or my Grandma Hazel's chicken and yellow rice.
Every time I make either of those dishes, the aromas remind me of when I was growing up and getting in the way while they were cooking dinner.
I'm sure chicken and yellow rice is eaten everywhere, but I had to name some typical Florida Cracker dishes chicken and yellow rice would be one of them. Cowboy macaroni is what we call goulash with a can of sweet corn added to it.
This week, I have a good chili recipe for you and it is not your every day chili with red beans and ground beef. Instead it is a white bean and chicken chili recipe that is sure to please.
I especially like this chili because white beans are one of my favorite legumes. This recipe makes enough chili for about 20 people. Cheers, Chef.
White bean chicken chili
3.5 tbs. pure vegetable salad oil
1/2 cup canned, diced green chili peppers, drained
2 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 1/4 tsp. dried, crushed oregano
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
7 oz. fresh, diced yellow onions
3 tbs. peeled, minced fresh garlic cloves
2 1/2 lb.. diced chicken
4 lb.. Great Northern beans, drained
1 1/8 quart water
1 5/8 tbs. chicken base
1 5/8 cup skim milk
1 qt. heavy cream
3/4 oz. fresh chopped cilantro
Pre-cook the chicken before and set aside. Sauté onions, chilies and spices in oil for 5 minutes.
Add cooked diced chicken and sauté for 5 minutes.
Add beans and cook 10 minutes.
Combine hot water, base and milk in stock pot. Stir well to blend. Add chicken and bean mixture. Simmer 30 minutes.
Add cream. Simmer 10 minutes.
Tim Spain is System Executive Chef with Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center and Morrison Healthcare Food Service. He can be reached at tim.spain@ahss.org/.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - www.newssun.com/col-112812-spain