Does it work? 15: White bean chicken chili

I'm conflicted about chili. On the one hand, its near-infinite varieties, scalability, and freezable nature make it a wonderful thing to cook. On the other hand, I just...don't really like it. I mean, it's fine. I'll eat it. But kidney beans are kind-of meh, I never have beef on hand, and the flavor doesn't excite me. 

Enter white bean chilis. These have a different flavor than traditional chili, chicken as the meat, and no kidney beans - definite wins.

To that end, I vaguely followed Averie Cooks' Easy 30-Minute Homemade White Chicken Chili recipe, with some hearty modifications. 

Why all the mods? I'm currently trying to use up all the random things in our pantry/fridge/freezer/other pantry, as well as reduce food waste (by aggressively putting perishables in anything I can reasonably get away with). But that's the beauty of chilis; they can take pretty much anything. 

Substituted (1 of 16):

- Lemon juice for lime juice (I was low on lime)

Left out (3 of 16):

- Cilantro (would have been good, but I hadn't gone to grocery store yet for the week)
- Green chiles (see previous)

- Some white beans (I just didn't have enough)

Added (2):

- Lentils (I wanted a little bit more beany-ness. Lentils don't have to be soaked and pre-cooked, making them a great last-minute decision.)

- Bok choy (see LPT at end) 

Notes:

- I didn't use any of the garnishes (though I'm sure they would have been nice), nor did I blend part of the bean mixture before adding it. 

- The only thing I'd do differently next time is use less cumin; I think since there were no green chiles, there was nothing to even out the cumin flavor and it ended up overwhelming things.

- I added the bok choy stems with everything else, and then added the leaves at the very end to wilt. 

Did it work? Sure. Mine turned out more like taco soup than anything, but it was still tasty. 

And LPT: Whenever you can put in more leafy greens, do it. 

xo, 

Devo