Naperville Eats: Baker turns chili champ at Whole Foods
By Judy Buchenot For The Sun January 31, 2012 4:40PM
Kathryn Rucys ladles out a serving of her winning White Bean Chili. | Judy Buchenot~For The Sun
White Bean Chili
Vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 yellow onion
1 jalapeño pepper
2 large poblano peppers
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 large chicken thighs
15-ounce can cannelini beans
1/4 cup chicken stock
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 lime
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Sear in a small amount of oil with a little lime juice and chopped garlic until all sides are golden brown. Then roast chicken in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, roast whole poblano peppers over an open flame until skin is charred. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam peppers. When cool, remove the seeds and charred skin. Cut into chunks. Remove seeds and stem from jalapeño. Dice garlic, onion and jalapeno, and sauté over high heat in a small amount of oil with cumin and chili powder until soft. Drain and rinse the beans. Add beans and poblano peppers to onion mixture. Stir in chicken broth, continuing to cook.
Remove skin and bones from cooked thighs and tear meat into small pieces. Add to mixture. Pour in heavy cream and reduce heat to medium. Cook until cream is reduced and mixture is thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Finish by sprinkling with chopped cilantro.
Article Extras
Updated: March 4, 2012 8:06AM
When Kathryn Rucys learned that Whole Foods Market was staging a chili competition between departments last year, she volunteered to make the bakery team’s entry.
The Naperville resident always has enjoyed cooking and completed classes at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. She worked in several restaurant kitchens before joining the baking staff at Whole Foods in Naperville. She has been the store’s cake decorator for more than two years, a position that she finds very fulfilling.
She still enjoys cooking as well as decorating, so she welcomed the chili challenge.
“I wanted my chili to be different,” Rucys says. “The standard chili is usually red with beef or pork, so I decided to go with a chicken chili.”
She also decided to go easy on the seasoning since the judges of the competition are store customers.
“When you are trying to please so many different palates, it is best not to choose flavors that are too abrupt,” she says. “It is best to add a little seasoning at a time and then taste. It is easy to add more, but it is impossible to take out the seasoning once it is in the chili.”
Rucys uses chicken thighs in her chili because she says the dark meat stays moister than breast meat. Another secret to Kathryn’s White Bean Chili is the use of charred poblano peppers. She roasts the peppers over an open flame on her stove until the skin is blackened, so that the pepper takes on a smoky flavor. The charred peppers helped her earn the “Best Tasting Chili” title.
Rucys enjoys trying new cooking challenges and entertaining. She recently hosted a “breakfast for dinner” party where she served baked eggs along with a bird’s nest of hash browns. Presentation is an important part of Rucys’s cooking style. After all, “You eat with your eyes first,” Rucys says.
She suggests serving her chili with cornbread and a dollop of sour cream enhanced with lime juice and cilantro.
Although the Whole Foods employees refer to the chili cook-off as the “chili wars,” Rucys says the competition is fierce but friendly. This year’s cook-off will be from noon until 3 p.m. Saturday. Customers are invited to taste each department’s chili and vote on their favorites.
Rucys is making another pot of chili in hopes of reclaiming the title. Here she shares her winning recipe from last year, as well as another past winner created by the specialty department team.
Know someone who really likes to cook and is good at it? Contact columnist Judy Buchenot at Buchenot@comcast.net.
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