Creamy White Chili

Christmas 2020. The cottage. Smaller again. But THIS time, Rémy gave me something. Not a gift — a cooking. On Christmas morning, before anyone else was awake, Rémy went to Mama's kitchen and made a roux. A DARK roux. Forty-five minutes. In Mama's cast-iron pot. With Mama's wooden spoon. He set his alarm for 5 AM and stood at the stove in the cottage in Thibodaux and stirred for forty-five minutes, and when I walked into the kitchen at 5:50 AM, smelling the roux from the bedroom, he was standing there grinning, the spoon in his hand, and the roux was the color of dark chocolate. Perfect. Not blonde. Dark.

"Merry Christmas, Papa," he said. "I made you a roux."

He made me a roux. My nine-year-old son woke before dawn on Christmas morning and made a dark roux in his great-grandmother's kitchen with his grandmother's spoon, and the roux was perfect, and the gift was the roux, and the roux was the gift, and I stood in that kitchen with tears running down my face and the smell of chocolate-colored oil and flour filling the room, and I thought: this is it. This is the chain. Not just holding. Growing. Not just surviving. Becoming. The boy made a dark roux. The boy is the roux. The boy is everything.

We used it for gumbo. Christmas gumbo. Rémy's gumbo. His first dark-roux gumbo. Mama tasted it and said — not "almost." Not "almost." She said "Bon." Good. From Marie-Claire Beaumont, about a nine-year-old boy's first dark roux gumbo, on Christmas morning, in the yellow cottage on Bayou Lafourche: "Bon." The highest word. The only word. The word that holds the whole thing up. Bon. Good. C'est bon. Joyeux Noël.

Rémy’s roux was the gift — but the gumbo that followed fed eight people and left the pot nearly clean before noon, and after that Christmas I started keeping a pot on every time the cold came in and the family gathered close. This Creamy White Chili isn’t Bayou Lafourche and it isn’t Mama’s cast iron, but it carries the same intention: something built slow, built with care, built to fill a room with a smell that pulls people out of their beds before the sun is up. When Rémy is old enough to make this one, I’ll hand him the spoon the same way it was handed to me — and I’ll stand back and let him stir.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cans (15 oz each) great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz cream cheese, softened and cubed
1/2 cup heavy cream
Sour cream, shredded Monterey Jack, and fresh cilantro, for serving

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Brown the chicken. Add the chicken pieces to the pot in a single layer. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is no longer pink on the outside, about 5–6 minutes. It does not need to be fully cooked through at this stage.
Add beans, chiles, and broth. Stir in the great northern beans, diced green chiles, and chicken broth. Add the cumin, oregano, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Stir to combine.
Simmer. Bring the chili to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered for 15–20 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked through and the flavors have melded.
Make it creamy. Reduce heat to low. Add the softened cream cheese cubes and stir gently until fully melted and incorporated into the broth, about 3–4 minutes. Pour in the heavy cream and stir to combine. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, and fresh cilantro. Serve immediately with warm cornbread or crusty bread on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Creamy White Chili — The Warmth You Pass Down